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State Minister for Education, Bobby Hajjaj, announced that the government will no longer view education as an expense. He stated that education will be the state’s primary investment, the core factory for human resources, and the main project for nation-building. He made these remarks at a press conference held in the meeting room of the Ministry of Education at the Secretariat.
The State Minister said, “We all know that funding is the first prerequisite for any education system. In recent years, allocation to the education sector has hovered around 12% of the total budget and approximately 1.5-2% of GDP, which is a structural limitation. However, our government’s — especially Prime Minister Tareq Rahman’s — policy stance is clear: to increase allocation to the education sector to 5% of GDP, which is our electoral pledge. International standards also recommend achieving targets of 4-6% of GDP and 15-20% of total government expenditure for education.”
Bobby Hajjaj stated, “The last-quarter rush for implementing the development budget must stop. Simply increasing allocations is not enough; the quality of expenditure must change. We acknowledge that a significant portion of the development budget is spent abruptly at the end of the year, affecting books, construction work, training, and everything else.”
He added that the government will once again prioritize development expenditure. This includes ensuring teacher training, strengthening institutions, establishing laboratories, libraries, language labs, enhancing digital content and evaluation capabilities, and improving school infrastructure, particularly water, sanitation, and safety.
He further stated, “We aim to implement a ‘One Teacher, One Tab’ system. Our manifesto includes free Wi-Fi, multimedia classrooms, and ‘One Teacher, One Tab.’ Therefore, we will not make this a mere gadget project; instead, we will transform it into a teaching-learning operating system.”
He also mentioned, “Besides Bengali and English, we want to teach students a third language. We will select a language that is conducive to international demand and the job market. Our schools must become innovation spaces. We aim to make sports mandatory from the secondary level. As per the Prime Minister’s directive, our goal will be to foster capabilities, not just certificates.”
