The proposed allocation for the education sector in the current fiscal year falls significantly short of expectations, constituting only 1.69 percent of GDP, the lowest in 16 years. This allocation is well below UNESCO’s recommended range of four to six percent of GDP for the sector. Countries like Nepal and Myanmar outpace Bangladesh in education spending, with Nepal allocating 3.6 percent and Myanmar 2.1 percent of GDP in 2022. Despite a 7.42 percent increase in allocation from the previous year, the education budget remains inadequate in terms of GDP share. Over the past decade, the sector’s allocation has steadily declined, reflecting a gap between planning and implementation. Educationists had hoped for measures to address issues like large classroom sizes, high student-teacher ratios, and teacher capacity enhancement, but such initiatives are not evident in the proposed budget. Analysis reveals that Bangladesh’s education expenditure as a percentage of GDP lags behind that of at least 35 least-developed countries, averaging 1.8 percent from 2016 to 2022.
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