Education: Not a Commodity

Finance Minister Abdul Muhith desperately wants to break out of the six percent growth trap and he seems to believe that this can be done with a larger budget. It must be noted though that in the last few years, he tried to do the same but the growth performance failed to match that of the previous years. In the new fiscal year, expenditure will rise to Tk 2.95 trillion; it will largely be funded by new taxes and social spending cuts which will no doubt affect the livelihood of the working class. On the contrary, there will be corporate tax cuts that will not only help attract foreign investment and prop up big businesses but also fatten the wallets of the wealthy. That's the revolutionary idea of "social justice" behind the new budget. 

Our lawmakers' vision of the future seems to revolve heavily around bringing in foreign money and enabling a system that profits off of the proletariat rather than building a capable workforce while ensuring that our children have an affordable education. How else would you explain the budgetary allocations for FY2015-16?

The allocation for the education and technology sectors dropped by 1.5 percent in the recent budget proposal -- from 13.1 percent of the budget in the last fiscal year to 11.6 percent this year. The allocation to the science and technology ministry decreased by nearly a whopping Tk 10 billion from the last fiscal year. So much for all this talk (more like demagoguery) about reforming the education system, boosting literacy rates, creating an environment of innovation, and producing high-skilled workers! If we are to go by the recent budgetary allocations, it looks like a whole new ball game. Despite so much having been written about the "window of opportunity" that is our demographic dividend and the increasing proportion of the working age population (a huge chunk of which remains illiterate), lawmakers seem least concerned about forming a capable and skilled workforce. 

In the budget proposal of FY2015-16, a staggering 10 percent VAT was imposed on private universities, medical and engineering colleges, for the first time ever. Following a request by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, it was reduced to a "lenient" 7.5 percent. Students of several private universities have begun to protest the move under the banner "No VAT" and are demanding a withdrawal of the ludicrous tax imposition. 

Do our politicians and lawmakers think they're doing a favour by giving us the "option" of studying in a private institution? What they seem to be forgetting is that it is they who have been entrusted with the duty to serve our interests in the best way possible; for instance, why not enforce a tuition "ceiling", if you will, to ensure that the average student can afford a decent education? One of the reasons why private universities were established in the first place is because of the limitations of public universities that neither have the infrastructure nor the capacity to accommodate every student. In a highly unequal social structure as ours, when it comes to private universities, those belonging to the middle and lower class are struggling to pay exorbitant tuition fees. If anything, lawmakers are doing us a disservice in the name of preserving our interests.  

What is particularly disturbing, however, is the treatment of education as a commodity. Unlike a pack of cigarettes or a restaurant meal that incurs a VAT fee, the right to education is a basic human right and not something to be capitalised on. Private universities are netting huge gains as it is, and imposing a VAT on students only serves to overburden the latter financially when most of them are already paying through the nose. A VAT not only legitimises the commoditisation of education, a universal right, but also further marginalises those who can only dream of affording an education. 

Low consumer awareness along with a lack of functional information on VAT makes the situation even more complex, making it easier for the tax system to spread its tentacles, as far as into the realm of education. 

If the government wants us to take their word for all that they say they'll deliver, they must not only act on their promises but also produce authentic, visible results instead of doing the opposite of what they say they'll do. Projects with fancy, ambitious titles and allocations of large sums of funds to MPs are almost never followed up and the people want transparency for a change. We want a clear breakdown of exactly how these hefty sums of taxpayers' money will be spent on said projects and their ensuing progress. The public ought to know how the proposed Tk 145.02 billion for the primary and mass education ministry and Tk 171.12 billion for the education ministry in the new budget will be spent. 

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had said earlier this year that steps would be taken to stem the trend of profit-making by educational institutions. Fast forward six months, the government serves us with a proposal that increases tuition fees instead, going on to do the very thing they had assured us they would "take steps" against. This is a manifestation of the many ways in which political organisations and higher-education institutions are in cahoots with each other. 

The new budget is indicative of a lack of prioritisation of people's welfare on the part of lawmakers. Slashing funds for the health and education sectors, which rank towards the bottom in terms of budget allocation, is extremely concerning. I am not sure whether the prospect of Bangladesh achieving the middle income goal by 2021 based on the labour of the low-skilled and a widening wealth gap is what we need or want. What we need is an educated, high-skilled workforce. Period. 

Such regressive forms of taxation on education intensify austerity measures on the working class and echo the dangerous capitalist ideals that have seeped into knowledge production. Our lawmakers need to rid themselves of the "get the maximum and give the minimum" attitude and policies, especially towards institutions which were built upon the ideals of harnessing knowledge and building cultural and political understanding that transcends race, gender, nationality and religion. 

The writer is a journalist at The Daily Star.