Slash defence spending, allocate more funds for education

Speakers at a discussion yesterday recommended reduction in the defence spending to allocate more funds for education sector to produce skilled human resources.

They also suggested a moratorium on political activities both by teachers and students in educational institutions to free education from politics.

An increase in the expenditure to the tune of up to five per cent of the GDP in the education sector was also recommended.

The speakers participated at a discussion on a policy brief on Education Policy, jointly organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Prothom Alo and The Daily Star at the VIP Lounge of the Jatiya Press Club.

National Professor Kabir Chowdhury said the country needs to determine what would the type and size of the army be.

BRAC Chairman Fazle Hasan Abed said considering the country's geo-political situation, the defence expenditure could be lowered, as suggested by Prof Chowdhury.

He said if the natural resources are utilised properly, skilled human resources can be developed.

"We could easily have one million dollar at any time by selling the underground gas, which is equivalent to two per cent of the GDP," Abed, who was addressing the discussion as Chief Guest, said.

He said the political parties should change their mindset to tap the natural resources, otherwise these would remain unutilised for long.

"If a political party announces that it will keep the gas reserves intact for 50 years (to meet the domestic demand), then another would say it will keep the reserves for hundred years to show more patriotism."

He said alternative steps should be taken to educate dropouts and non-school going children to develop them as skilled manpower, since the number of non-school going children and dropouts are still high.

Prof Shamsul Huq said the quality of education and capacity of teaching staff in the leading universities, including Dhaka University, have fallen drastically due to politicisation of educational institutions and use of students as armed cadres.

He recommended allocation of five per cent of the GDP for the education sector to boost the education sector and ensure quality of education in the country.

Most of the speakers agreed that madrassah education has failed to produce enlightened and skilled manpower despite the fact that its has allocation of funds. In contrast, they said, education imparted through the English medium schools could help students access global standard education.

However, Yunus Sikder, former Chairman of the Madrassah Education Board, said madrassah education is much needed for moral education as only religion could teach ethics.

Former bureaucrat ANM Yusuf, who attended the discussion as special guest, backed the idea of a ban on political activities in the educational institutions. "Why 96 per cent students will remain hostage to only four per cent armed hoodlums," he questioned.

He underscored the need for bringing the stakeholders in education under a network to strengthen the sector.

Prof Muzaffar Ahmed of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University, who presided over the session, observed that the allocation in terms of revenue budget and development budget is inadequate for the education sector.

He said the country's per capita expenditure on education is only 10 per cent while in Malaysia it is 110 per cent. He suggested more freedom for the heads of educational institutions to bring about creativity.

An unhealthy trend is prevailing in the country's employment sector as the present rate of unemployment has gone up to 33 per cent although the number of educated unemployed is high as 57 per cent, he said, quoting the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

Former Bangla Academy Director-General Syed Anwar Hossain, Vice-chancellor of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) Dr. Bazlul M. Chowdhury, Prof. Mahub Ullah, Rasheda Chowdhury, Zahid Hossain, Siddiqur Rahman, Monjoor Ahmed, Hena Das and Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim, among others, participated in the discussion.

Earlier, Dr Md. Masum of Jahangirnagar University presented the CPD Task Force report on Education Policy.