The Education and Technology sector get 5 per cent higher allocation in the proposed national budget for 2022-23 fiscal year, placed by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in Parliament on Thursday.

The allocation was increased to Tk 99,978 crore from Tk 94,878 crore in the budget for 2021-22 fiscal year. The allocation is 14.7 per cent of the total proposed budget.

However, the allocation for only education except technology is Tk 81,449 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal year increasing from Tk 71,974 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The allocation against education still remains less than 2 percent of the country’s GDP.

Read: Budget FY23: Kamal says e-commerce business boomed, but riddled with scams

In the proposed budget, Tk 31,761 crore was allocated against the Primary and Mass Education Ministry, while Tk 39,961 crore against the Secondary and Higher Education Division, Tk 9,727 against Technical and Madrasa Division, Tk 16,613 crore against the Science and Technology Ministry and Tk 1,916 crore against the ICT Division.

In the budget speech, the finance minister said the government is relentlessly working to build Sonar Bangla as envisaged by the Father of the Nation by giving the highest importance to the education sector and has adopted education as one of the main strategies for development. 

He said the government has taken special initiatives in the education sector to compensate the loss during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read: Budget FY23: Kamal sees rising inflation as a major challenge

“Our education programme was disrupted since the first week of March 2020 due to the spread of coronavirus infection. However, the government took various steps to continue the academic schedule by keeping the education activities free from the negative effects of the pandemic,” he said.