WE applaud the government for undertaking the “Secondary Education Development Programme"—the country's largest-ever education-related project—under the budget of next fiscal year. A mammoth sum of Tk 137,666 crore is to be allocated for the project and its core objective is to enhance quality of secondary education and boost skills development of students to arm them with the skill sets needed for the job market.

The programme is timely which, if implemented properly in the coming years, could do wonders for the quality of secondary education and career and educational opportunities for students. However, it should also be noted that with such mega projects comes the attendant risk of mega-failures.

The project is unique for another reason: it is a test case for a unified budget where development and nondevelopment budget are merged. This is intended to increase efficiency in terms of use of resources and implementation.

We hope that the programme has taken into account the need to equip students with the IT skills and technical expertise needed for a modern workforce. Already, the proposed programme is slated to bring in much-needed reform in critical areas such as monthly pay order for teachers of non-government schools and school curriculum and exams—the lack of incentivisation of teachers and the menace of HSC and SSC question paper leaks are some of many problems plaguing the secondary education sector.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the capacity of the education ministry to properly implement the five-year programme. The ministry is set to come up with schemes regarding implementation and it is crucial that along with the operational details, mechanisms of accountability and transparency be put in place because it is taxpayers' money that is at stake.