Masum Billah

The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) will go into budget session today. The nation is waiting to see the placing of national budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Every year, immediately after the initial announcement of the national budget, prices of different kinds of education materials go up, putting extra burden on the commoners. We don’t know what will happen this time.

The more important concern is how much budget will be allocated this time for the education sector.  

UNICEF prescribes for the nations to spend 20 per cent of the total budget and 6 per cent of the GDP for education. A total of 88,162 crore was allocated for the education sector in the fiscal 2023-24; out of which Tk. 34,722 crore for primary and mass education while Tk. 42,838 crore for secondary and higher education sector.

We know that a big change has been brought to the secondary level education in terms of curriculum and that has been made following the examples of the developed countries such as Finland, the USA and Japan. However, comparative picture gives us a frustrating experience when we look at the salary structure of the teachers of those countries.

The initial salary of the MPO enlisted teachers stands at USD 119 (equivalent to 14 thousand taka per month), but the teachers of lower secondary in Finland get 3,318 dollar that is 28 times higher than that of Bangladeshi teachers and it is 30 times higher in the USA and 21 times in Japan. It shows that the teachers in our country get the lowest salary and benefits among all other Asian countries.

The young teachers who join the teaching profession suffers from dissatisfaction since the joining day and so, they try to leave the job while looking for a better option. To support the family and meet other expenditures, they resort to private tuition that ensures their financial security but pricks their conscience, insinuating that the teachers cannot dedicate themselves to the profession fully.

The BANBEIS report says that 2,46,784 teachers work in the secondary level; out of them the number of government teachers is 13,980 and there are 2,32,804 non-government teachers. According to the statistics of DSHE, 80,806 non-government teachers get salary under the MPO system.

In comparison with 49 countries in Asia, Bangladesh stands 44th in terms of teachers’ salary. Among the Asian countries, the Singaporean teachers obtain the highest salary who get the entrance salary equivalent to 4,080 dollars along with some other benefits, taking the total amount to around 5,300 dollars.

The second position is occupied by Oman where secondary level teachers get a monthly salary equivalent to 4,190 dollars which is followed by Saudi Arabia as well. The fourth position in Asia to offer the highest salaries to the secondary level teachers is occupied by Kuwait, then comes Qatar, Japan and China.

Among the South Asian countries, the highest salary is given in the Maldives. The available information says that the country increased the salary of the teachers in 2022 that has now reached 1,278 dollars.

India occupies the second position in this race despite the salary difference from one state to another. Bhutan is in the third position, followed by Nepal which manages a monthly salary of 330 dollars for the lower secondary level teachers. Even Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are ahead of Bangladesh.

Whereas the situation is turning worse in our country. In Bangladesh, the budget for education has decreased over the years in comparison to the GDP. Last year, it was 1.79 per cent of the GDP, which is the lowest in the sub-continent. The GDP of India is higher than us. They allocate 2.09 per cent for education. So, the question is -- will the new budget address this issue? Will there be clear directives in the new budget for addressing all these discrepancies? Let’s wait and see what really happens to the education sector.
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The writer is President, English Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh (ETAB).