Under the next national budget, the education sector is reportedly set to receive an allocation of around Tk31,618.06 crore, which is around 10.5% of the total budget
The allocation would be an increase of Tk2,405.06 crore from the ongoing fiscal year, but would fall far short of expectations, well placed sources said.
In terms of Gross Domestic Product, Bangladesh will be spending only around 1.8% of its GDP on education; the number has hovered between 1.8% to 2.2% for the past few years.
Of the total allocation, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry will get around Tk14,540 crore, while the rest of the amount is designated for the Education Ministry.
A Finance Division official said that around Tk12,911.27 crore would be used to pay the salaries of teachers and other officials, while Tk5,000 crore block allocations would be used to pay monthly pay orders (MPO) to the employees of schools and colleges.
Some 8,000 new schools and colleges are waiting to be included under the MPO system.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told the Dhaka Tribune: “We will ensure proper use of the budget funds which will be used for MPO of schools and colleges.”
According to the latest budget documents, around Tk4,197.34 crore would be used for development expenditures in the 2015-16 fiscal year.
