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The total budgetary allocation for the education sector declined as per percentage of the total national budget to 13.71 per cent in 2003-04 from 16.44 per cent of 1994-95.
In 2003-2004, total government budget was Tk 493.69 billion and allocation for education was Tk 67.57 billion. On the other hand, in 1994-95, the total government budget was Tk 214.50 billion and the allocation for education was Tk 35.26 billion.
"Share of education sector in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has actually reached a plateau in the first half of the current decade," The Innovators said in its Primary Education Policy Watch (PEPW).
It said in 1999-2000, education in GDP was Tk 53.85 billion while total GDP was Tk 237.08 billion, which shows a ratio of 2.27 per cent.
In 2002-03, the ratio was 2.35 per cent.
The total public expenditure in education as percentage of GDP declined since fiscal year 2000. It steadily fell to 2.03 per cent in 2003-04.
" Over the years the education allocation as per percentage of the total government revenue budget fell from 19.73 per cent in 1993-94 to only 15.44 per cent in 2003-04," economist Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir of Innovators said.
Total government revenue budget was Tk 91.50 billion in 1993-94 and Tk 289.70 billion in 2003-04.
On the other hand total revenue allocation in education was Tk 18.05 billion in 1993-94 and Tk 44.74 billion in 2003-04.
The annual development programme (ADP) allocation in education as per percentage of the total ADP fell from 13.62 per cent in 1994-95 to 11.25 per cent in 2003-04.
Total ADP in 1994-95 and 2003-2004 were Tk 111.50 billion and Tk 203 billion respectively. On the other hand the development allocation for the sector was 15.18 billion and Tk 22.83 billion in 1994-95 and 2003-04 respectively.
National Education Policy (NEP), National Plan of Action (NPA), Education Component of poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), National Budgets and Primary Education Development Programme and other policy instruments that help raise the standards of primary education are under the purview of PEPW.
Rights to education have not only been pledged through the constitutional directives but also through numerous international covenants in which Bangladesh is a signatory.
"Many of such pledges carved out in different education policies and programmes was not fruitful as they became rhetoric rather than reality in the education sector," the study pointed out.
The failure is also caused by policy changes and non-interaction with the stakeholders concerned ahead of programmes launched .
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