DHAKA, June 11, 2020 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today proposed an allocation of Taka 66,401 crore for education sector in the national budget for 2020-21 fiscal year.
While placing the national budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 at the Jatiya Sangsad, he said, “You are aware that we have declared holidays to all academic institutions of the country since mid-March as part of our efforts to enforce social distancing to contain the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus.”
This has essentially caused a discontinuation of the regular academic curriculum of around 4 crore students across the country, he added.
Although the government has introduced the distant learning programme on a limited scale during the holidays, the loss to the overall education sector has been enormous, Kamal said, adding, “Our most important task in education for the next fiscal year would be to bring back continuity in the curriculum and cover this loss from long study break. We are allocating sufficient resources to this sector in the next fiscal year to achieve this objective.”
“In the last budget speech, I declared that we have devised various plans in the education sector keeping in mind the science and technology based education and especially the fourth industrial revolution, and that we have allocated sufficient resources in the education sector in coherence with this goal and objective,” the finance minister said.
” I would like to reiterate to the nation, through you, that these efforts will continue in the next fiscal year,” he added.
Primary education is the stepping stone for creation of skilled human resource, which in turn is the prerequisite for economic development, the finance minister said.
“Hence, we have given a high priority on primary education, and in the Seventh Five Year Plan that is concluding this year, we have set out bold targets to achieve cent percent in net enrolment in primary education, the rate of enrolment of children up to Grade V and the universal literacy rate for everyone above 7 years of age,” he added.
” You would be happy to know that due to our special efforts in primary and mass education during the last few years, we are close to achieving our targets. Our main strategy for this sector in the next fiscal year would be to keep up with the good works in order to build a high quality primary education system based on equity and inclusiveness,” Kamal said.
“We have been implementing a range of key activities in primary education that includes nationalising primary schools, upgrading the physical infrastructure of newly nationalised schools, distributing free textbooks, improving the ICT and other education infrastructures,” the finance minister said.
“The Cabinet has approved the National School Meal Policy 2019, and under this policy, we are going to roll out mid-day meals to all primary schools across the country,” the minister said.
Works are underway to establish interactive classrooms in 503 schools, and soon the government will be providing internet connectivity to all primary schools, including two laptops and two multimedia projectors to each school, he added.
“As part of our effort to make primary education more inclusive, we are providing assistive devices like wheel chairs, crutches, hearing aids to the children with special needs,” the finance minister added.
“In addition, for the children from small ethnic minorities, we are developing textbooks in their own alphabets and recruiting teachers with relevant language skills. In addition, we have launched some exceptional initiatives, such as special school feeding in poverty stricken areas, preparing profile of each pupil, setting up of ICT labs in schools and expanding cub scouting, which will continue in the next fiscal year,” he said.
“I propose to allocate a total of Tk. 24,940 crore for the next 2020-21 fiscal year for the primary education sector, which was Tk. 24,040 crore in the budget for current FY 2019-20,” Kamal said.
The government has achieved tremendous success in secondary and higher education in the last decade, Kamal said, adding, Bangladesh is now a role model for the developing countries in terms of increasing the literacy rate and eradicating gender gaps in education.
The government has already been implementing key initiatives, such as teachers’ training including ICT training, constructing school buildings and expanding classrooms with modern facilities in the underprivileged areas, enlisting private schools under the MPO (Monthly Pay Order) list, nationalising private schools, distributing free textbooks, the finance minister added.
“However, we are now laying more emphasis on improving the quality of secondary education and the research in higher education. We introduced the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust Fund to ensure education for the poor and meritorious students who are otherwise deprived of education,” Kamal said.
Tuition fees up to degree (pass) and equivalent students are now being provided from this trust, he said adding in FY 2020-21, stipend will be provided to 5 lakh 57 thousand male and 10
lakh 95 thousand female students at the secondary level, 1 lakh 16 thousand male and 4 lakh 62 thousand female students at the higher secondary level, and 50 thousand male and 1 lakh 50 thousand female students at the degree level.
In addition, stipend has so far been given to 6 lakh student based upon their performance in public examinations, and a further 1 lakh 87 thousand students will get stipend in the next fiscal year. Besides, we are continuing with the trend to recognize and honor the best talented students by arranging the ‘Creative Talent Hunt’ program, Kamal said.
“We are actively trying to increase the pay and other financial benefits for teachers and others involved in education management. We consider the provision of adequate financial benefits and modern training to them as an important corollary for improving the quality of education,” he said.
” Besides, we are celebrating the National Education Week each year where the best teacher and best education official from every district and every upazila are being selected and honored. We are also encouraging innovation in education to improve the quality of education,” the finance minister said.
” For improving the quality of higher education, we allocated Tk 3,200 crore in fiscal year 2019-20 to implement 42 projects for improving and expanding physical infrastructure and other facilities of public universities,” Kamal said.
He said out of this, 5 new campuses have been built through 5 projects for the Barishal University, Rangamati Science and Technology University, Islamic Arabic University, Sheikh Hasina University and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University. “Under the remaining 37 ongoing projects, physical infrastructure will be improved and scientific equipment will be provided to various public universities. We are keeping sufficient allocation for these projects in FY fiscal year 2020-21 so that the projects can be implemented in due time,” Kamal said.
“I propose to allocate a total of Tk. 33,117 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal year for the secondary and higher education sector, which was Tk. 29,624 crore in the current fiscal year,” he added.
“We have begun implementing quality technical and vocational education to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are working to identify the right technologies and right skills keeping the Fourth Industrial Revolution in mind, and accordingly conducting activities so as to properly educate the students,” the finance minister said.
Short courses for skills development are being implemented in public and private technical training schools in addition to continuing with regular curricula, he added.
This will not only help increase the capacity of the institutes, but also generate interests among the general people for technical and vocational education through the provision of teachers training and attractive stipend to students, Kamal said.
“We have been providing free textbooks to dakhil, technical and ebtedayi levels to eliminate discrimination among various mediums of education. Special training courses are being conducted for the English language and science teachers from technical schools and madrasas. Special focus is being given on expanding technical and vocational education and creating skilled workforce for the international job market,” he said.
To that end, IT education has been made mandatoryand textbook on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been included in the curriculum starting from Grade Six, the finance minister added. “We are organising ‘Skills Competition’ nationwide. This type of competition will play an effective role in helping expand science-based education in future. Work for establishing one Technical School and College,” the finance minister said.
“We have begun implementing quality technical and vocational education to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are working to identify the right technologies and right skills keeping the Fourth Industrial Revolution in mind, and accordingly conducting activities so as to properly educate the students,” he said.
Short courses for skills development are being implemented in public and private technical training schools in addition to continuing with regular curricula, he added.
This not only help increase the capacity of the institutes, but also generate interests among the general people for technical and vocational education through the provision of teachers training and attractive stipend to students, Kamal added. “We have been providing free textbooks to dakhil, technical and ebtedayi levels to eliminate discrimination among various mediums of education.”
” Special training courses are being conducted for the English language and science teachers from technical schools and madrasas. Special focus is being given on expanding technical and vocational education and creating skilled workforce for the international job market. To that end, IT education has been made mandatoryand textbook on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been included in the curriculum starting from Grade Six. We are organising ‘Skills Competition’ nationwide,” he said.
“This type of competition will play an effective role in helping expand science-based education in future. Work for establishing one Technical School and College 30(TSC) in each of the selected 100 upazilas is underway, and steps have been taken to establish one such institute in each of the remaining 329 upazilas,” the finance minister said.
In addition, works are underway to establish one women polytechnic institute in each of the 4 divisions (Sylhet, Barishal, Mymensingh and Rangpur), polytechnic institutes in 23 districts, one engineering college each in 4 divisions (Chattagram, Khulna, Rajshahi and Rangur) and 4 land survey institutes, he added. These efforts will expand the facility of our technical education nationwide.
“You are aware that a large of the madrasas in Bangladesh are lagging behind than regular schools and colleges in terms of physical infrastructure,” Kamal said.
“To address this issue, we have constructed new buildings in 1 thousand 8 hundred madrasas nationwide, and set up modern multimedia classrooms in 653 madrasas,” he added.
” I propose to allocate a total of Tk. 8,344 crore for the next 2020-21 fiscal year for technical and madrasa education, which was Tk. 7,450 crore in current FY 2019-20,” the finance minister added.