Budget for coronavirus-battered education sector unchanged

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The allocation for the training sector in the proposed cover the upcoming fiscal year of 2020-21 remains almost unchanged with regards to size and percentage of Gross Household Product (GDP), when compared to current budget.

There were expectations that how big is allocation in the education sector will rise significantly in the next fiscal year, to support the possible increased dropouts in schools that will subsequently cause a rise in child marriage, early pregnancy and child labour as a result of coronavirus pandemic.

Financing Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal allocated Tk 66,400 crore for the training sector for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

He allocated Tk 24,937 crore for the principal and mass education ministry, Tk 33,118 crore for secondary and advanced schooling division and Tk 8,345 crore for technical and madrasa education division.

The amount makes up 11.69 percent of the total outlay and its share in the GDP stands at 2.09 percent.
 
In today's budget, the allocation for the training sector was Tk 61,118 crore and it was 11.68 percent of the full total budget and 2.10 percent of GDP, regarding to budget documents.

Kamal in his budget speech said that common education around 4 crore students has been hampered because of the oronavirus crisis. "Within the next fiscal it'll be essential for us to make up the training loses in the training sector. We've ensured enough means to make up losing in the finances" Kamal stated, without giving any particular guidelines.

A Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) rapid survey arrived on June 3 where 126 NGO and teaching representatives gave their feedback, predicting increased dropouts and leading to child marriages due to fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the respondents, 84 percent said dropouts increase at schools, 72 percent said malnutrition will impact learning ability, 71 percent said child labour increase and 58 percent said early marriage increase.

Against this backdrop, the educationists needed at least a 15 percent allocation of the cover the education sector, to keep the success in the sector and curb almost any "catastrophic" situation.

They sought more funds for chalking out and implementation of a two to three-year-long Covid-19 response and recovery plan for the education sector.

"This is a normal education spending plan. With the allocation, you won't be possible to recuperate the learning loss because of Covid-19," CAMPE executive director Rasheda K Choudhury stated.

She hoped that the federal government will address the problem in the revised budget and education, health insurance and human resource development are certain to get their due priorities.

Brac University Professor Emeritus Manzoor Ahmed proposed that the government should make a particular allocation of Tk 5,000 crore for upazila-based recovery and rescue method from the coronavirus crisis for the education sector within the next budget.

Unesco also recommends spending 6 percent of GDP found in the education sector.

Educationists tell you that the federal government expenditure on education due to a good proportion of GDP offers been hovering around 2 percent for the last several years, which is lower than a great many other South Asian countries.

In fact, the training sector's share in the budget has been falling for the last couple of years -- in the revised budget of the 2010-11 fiscal year, for instance, the figure was 14.3 percent.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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