New tax, no special allocation to affect students  

Eminent educationists have expressed their dissatisfaction with the proposed budget for the education sector, terming it 'typical', and observing that the students are ultimately going to be the scapegoats of new tax.

They said the digital divide will widen and the students will face pressure of extra fees as private universities will increase all kinds of fees to pay the 15% corporate income tax imposed in the proposed budget.

The educationists said digital divide, child marriage, child labour and learning losses are the most important factors behind the increasing number of dropouts from primary to higher education during the ongoing pandemic. But the proposed budget failed to address the issues. It did not allocate any special fund to recover learning loss and bring back students to school, college and university.

Rather, they said, a 15% corporate income tax has been imposed on private universities, medical, dental, and engineering colleges and ICT institutes. The students are going to be the scapegoats as the educational institutions are sure to increase admission and tuition fees to pay the amount.

In the proposed budget, the education sector got Tk71,953 crore which was Tk66,207 crore last year. But the percentage of the allocation has decreased in terms of GDP and volume of national budget compared to the last year.

This year, 2.09% of GDP has been earmarked on education, but the proposed budget ticks only 2.08%. The Unesco suggests a spending of 4-6% of GDP in education.

The education sector received 12.28% of the budget last year, which fell to 11.92% in the proposed budget. The education budget was 14% in 2014. 

Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, a noted educationist and former teacher of Dhaka University, told The Business Standard that a large number of students are becoming victims of digital divide as they cannot take part in the online classes due to lack of digital devices and high cost of internet packages. The government did not allocate any special fund to lessen the gap.

"We have been urging the government to make a database of the students who could not take part in virtual academic activities.
A special allocation is needed to provide digital devices like laptops to each student. But no such initiative is mentioned in the proposed budget," he said.

"There is no allocation to contain child labour, child marriage and dropout in the budget. So, I do not see any hope with such an unrealistic and education-unfriendly budget," he said.

"It should be made mandatory to sit with the country's noted educationists before preparing the budget. But unfortunately, it was not done. The budget is a typical one and it cannot ensure quality education at all. If the next generation grows up with limited knowledge, the country is sure to face difficulties in future," he added.

Manzoor Ahmed, professor emeritus at Brac University, told TBS, "We proposed to allocate Tk5 lakh to each upazila, and form a committee to disburse the fund among the poorest students to check dropout. But unfortunately, the government did not pay heed to our appeal."
He said, "I had told the education ministry to identify the poor students who have little chance to return to the school. It is necessary to form upazila level committees to distribute the funds. The funds will be used for buying digital devices and for family expenses," he said.

"We do not know how the students will return to the classes as the students have already suffered huge learning losses. Most of them could not attend online classes last year. Five months of this year have already passed too. So, it will be tough to recover the learning losses with no special allocation to address the issue," he said.

The finance minister proposed imposing a 15% corporate tax on incomes of private universities, medical, dental, and engineering colleges and ICT institutes from 2021-22 fiscal year.

Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam said, the decision of imposing 15% tax on private higher educational institutions is unwise as these institutions are non-profit ones. At the same time, most of the institutions will definitely increase all kinds of students' fees. And ultimately the students will be sufferers.
 
Private universities association appeals

Association of private Universities of Bangladesh on Friday protested at the 15% corporate tax on incomes of private universities, medical, dental, and engineering colleges and ICT institutes, terming it unlawful and illogical.

In a statement, the leader of the organisation said, the public universities get hundreds of crores of taka from the government. But the private universities depend on the admission and tuition fees collected from the students. The new tax will create discriminations in the higher education sector. 

"Many private universities are in severe financial crisis and they are now trying to survive. It will be tough to bear the cost of educational activities of the universities if the new tax is imposed. Instead of imposing tax, we demand the government to provide financial help to the universities facing crisis," the statement said.

Education budget in the eyes of CPD

Total allocation for the education sector in FY2022 is Tk71,953 crore, an increase of 8.68% compared to FY2021. 

The eighth five-year plan targets to increase education budget to 4% of GDP by 2031 and 5% by 2041. However, at the current rate, education budget would get 2.15% of GDP in 2025, 2.26$ in 2031 and 2.43% in 2041, said a statement of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). 

It also said, "CIT on private universities and private medical colleges should be withdrawn as this will ultimately increase the cost of higher education implicitly."