Prof. Dr. Emajuddin Ahmad, Former Vice Chancellor, Dhaka University : The education sector has been neglected in the proposed budget. Usually, the education sector is the most prioritized but this time it is defense. It is the state’s moral responsibility to focus on education.
It is a sector that instills knowledge into society; a sector that every government, no matter how advanced, provides money to; and given the current situation of education, the world prioritizes it. What else can I say about the education sector’s proposed budget? We have a finance minister who, of all the things he could have done, proposed a bloated budget but avoided topics of national interest. This is not right. The people have always come to see the education sector being the most prioritized in the budget. Although allocation has increased somewhat compared to the previous year, the majority was not for the education sector. I do not think this is a sound decision. Even though they claim to give importance to education, there is no evidence to imply that. The banking sector has been neglected and the education sector as well. This is a kind of apathy. Since our finance minister is my batchmate from Dhaka University, someone who is good in everything including studies, good things are expected from him. So his failure regarding this is hard to swallow.
Education sector should be given the most priority – This is always the case in every other country. Health and education, whenever these two sectors are prioritized, people become skilled and healthy. Thus, these sectors are highly prioritized, which should always be the case.
Based on an interview by Ashiq Rahman, translated by Abrar Hussain