As in previous years, the education sector should have been one of the highest priorities in this year’s budget. Unfortunately, it’s deeply disappointing that, following the trend of past budgets, the education sector has once again been severely neglected.

Only 2 percent of the total budget has been allocated to education, which is highly inadequate by international standards. With such a limited allocation, there’s effectively nothing significantly new for education or for the future generations of students in Bangladesh.

At a time when the country should be investing most heavily in developing talent and nurturing its young population, we’re unable to provide sufficient funding to the sector. A large portion of the education budget is typically spent on infrastructure development rather than on improving the quality of education itself.

This budget once again clearly reflects that, despite official statements emphasising the importance of education, the government isn’t giving the sector the level of priority it deserves in practice.

We’ve consistently argued that at least 5 percent of the national budget should be allocated to education. But Bangladesh has yet to achieve or seriously address that target.