EDUCATION remains the most powerful tool for individual empowerment and societal transformation. In a country like Bangladesh, where more than a third of the population is under 25, investment in education is not just a moral imperative; it is a strategic necessity. The fiscal year 2025–26 budget offers a critical opportunity to reflect on the government’s priorities in this regard. This year’s allocation to the education sector stands at Tk 95,644 crore, marking a 27 per cent increase from the revised Tk 74,597 crore in the 2024–25 financial year. In percentage terms, education now commands 12.1 per cent of the total national budget and 2.1 per cent of the gross domestic product. While this increased investment appears commendable at first glance, a deeper examination reveals critical gaps between financial commitments and the systemic challenges plaguing Bangladesh’s education system. This upward revision, while encouraging, raises fundamental questions about whether the allocation is sufficient to address the deep-rooted structural and qualitative challenges that continue to plague Bangladesh’s education system.
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Allocation breakdown
A CLOSER examination of the budget breakdown shows a clear attempt at supporting a balanced approach across different educational levels. Of the total education allocation, the ministry of primary and mass education has received Tk 35,403 crore, the ministry of education’s Secondary and Higher Education Division is allocated Tk Tk47,563 crore, and the Technical and Madrasa Education Division is granted Tk Tk12,678 crore. This distribution suggests a continued emphasis on foundational and secondary education while also recognising the growing need for skills-based technical education and inclusivity through religious schooling.
Despite this substantial increase in nominal terms, Bangladesh’s investment in education remains far below international benchmarks. UNESCO recommends that countries allocate 4–6 per cent of their GDP and 15–20 per cent of their national budget to education. By comparison, Bangladesh’s education spending remains stagnant at just around 2 per cent of GDP. Even the revised 11.9 per cent of the national budget, while an improvement from previous years, falls short of the levels necessary to drive transformational change. Neighbouring countries present more encouraging figures. Bhutan, for instance, invests over 8 per cent of its GDP in education, while the Maldives allocates 4.58 per cent. These comparative figures underscore the structural underinvestment in Bangladesh’s education sector and highlight a critical policy gap.
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Implementation challenges
COMPOUNDING the problem of insufficient funding is the chronic underutilisation of allocated resources. Approximately 20 per cent of the education budget remains unspent annually due to systemic capacity constraints and administrative inefficiencies, significantly diluting the potential impact of increased allocations. This implementation gap highlights the urgent need for institutional reforms to complement financial investments.
The budget also introduces potentially counterproductive measures, such as doubling the source tax on savings interest for public universities and monthly pay order institutions from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, a move that has drawn criticism from educators who argue it will exacerbate existing financial strains and distract from core teaching responsibilities. Teachers’ associations have argued that this will discourage academic savings, erode financial autonomy, and further complicate the already tenuous financial conditions faced by public institutions. More importantly, the policy risks demoralising educators, many of whom already contend with inadequate salaries, limited career progression, and resource constraints. If the goal is to improve the quality of education, disincentivising the teaching profession is a regressive step.
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Equity concern
THERE is also growing concern about the continued fragmentation within the education system. Bangladesh’s education landscape is divided into distinct streams: Bengali-medium general education, English-medium private education, and madrasa education. This segmentation reinforces social divisions and perpetuates inequality. For example, students in English-medium institutions often have better access to global opportunities and higher education, while madrasa students, despite receiving religious education, often struggle to integrate into mainstream employment markets. Experts have long called for an integrated, inclusive national curriculum that reduces disparities and fosters a common national educational standard while respecting diversity. However, the current budget does little to address these structural divisions.
Equity remains a significant challenge, particularly in rural and climate-affected regions. In the coastal and haor areas, frequent flooding and displacement disrupt schooling for thousands of children. Urban slums, meanwhile, are plagued by overcrowded classrooms and lack of qualified teachers. While the budget does mention increased allocations for infrastructural improvements, the absence of a targeted approach for climate-resilient and context-sensitive education infrastructure is a glaring omission. Given Bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change, integrating educational resilience into national planning is both timely and essential.
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Reforms for impact
TO TRANSFORM these financial commitments into meaningful progress, Bangladesh must adopt a comprehensive and multipronged strategy that addresses both systemic inefficiencies and quality concerns. First and foremost, the government should commit to gradually increasing education funding to meet UNESCO’s recommended benchmarks of 4-6 per cent of GDP and 15-20 per cent of the national budget, ensuring that allocations not only keep pace with inflation but also address the growing needs of an expanding student population. This increased funding must be accompanied by strengthened administrative capacities at all levels to ensure full utilisation of allocated resources, as the current 20 per cent of unspent education funds each year represents a significant lost opportunity for improvement. Particular attention should be paid to streamlining procurement processes and enhancing financial management skills among education administrators to overcome the bureaucratic hurdles that currently prevent optimal fund utilisation. The government should urgently review counterproductive tax policies affecting educators, especially the recent doubling of source tax on savings interest for public universities and MPO institutions, which threatens to undermine teacher morale and financial stability at a time when the education sector needs motivated and focused educators most. Simultaneously, targeted reforms must be implemented to reduce the glaring disparities between different education streams — general Bengali medium, madrasa, and English medium — through curriculum harmonisation, quality standardisation, and equitable resource distribution to ensure all students receive comparable educational opportunities regardless of their chosen path. Perhaps most crucially, the sector needs to shift its focus from quantitative expansion to qualitative enhancement by prioritising investments in continuous teacher training programmes, modern pedagogical tools, and infrastructure quality that directly impact learning outcomes, rather than simply building more physical structures. This strategic reorientation would require developing robust monitoring mechanisms to track the impact of these investments on actual educational achievements, ensuring that every taka spent contributes meaningfully to creating a skilled, competitive workforce capable of driving Bangladesh’s future development. Only through such comprehensive, coordinated reforms can the country hope to translate its financial commitments into the transformative educational progress needed to achieve its aspirations.
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Budget lines to changes
WHILE the 2025–26 financial year budget demonstrates a surface-level commitment to education, its true test will lie in overcoming implementation hurdles and aligning expenditures with the urgent needs of a system grappling with quality deficits, equity gaps, and evolving global demands. Only through strategic reforms that complement financial investments can Bangladesh hope to translate these budgetary numbers into tangible educational outcomes that drive national development and prosperity.
The path forward requires not just more funds but smarter spending and stronger political will to address the root causes of educational underperformance. As Bangladesh aspires to become a developed nation by 2041, the education sector must move from being a budget line item to becoming the centerpiece of national development strategy, with allocations and implementations that match the scale of this ambition.
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Call to action
THE 2025–26 financial year budget represents a step forward in acknowledging the importance of education in Bangladesh’s national development. The increase in allocation sends a positive signal, but it remains far from sufficient when measured against both the needs of the population and global standards. More importantly, meaningful transformation will depend not just on how much is spent, but how wisely and equitably it is spent. The education budget must be viewed not merely as an expense but as the most strategic investment in the country’s future — one that determines whether Bangladesh can truly harness its demographic dividend and build a just, prosperous, and knowledge-based society.
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ÌýMusharraf Tansen is a development analyst and former country representative of the Malala Fund.
