It also suggested decentralisation of administration and constitution of a regulatory body for private universities.

The commission in its final report recommends a single-discipline secondary schooling in place of the current division into science, humanities and commerce groups from class eight.

The commission, formed in January last year with former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Mohammad Moniruzzaman Miah as its chairman, handed over the report to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her office yesterday.

The report observes the current multi-disciplinary secondary education system creates socio-economic and intellectual divisions among the students coming from all strata and acts against social unity.

It recommends hiking up the teacher-student ratio to 1:30 at primary level and 1:40 at secondary level by the next eight years.

According to a report of the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) containing the latest educational data, the teacher-student ratio in Bangladesh is the poorest among 22 South and East Asian nations. There is just one teacher for every 57 school-goers in Bangladesh.

The commission puts emphasis on instituting an effective mechanism to ensure enrolment of children in school at the age of five. It also advises to formulate and adopt a language policy and stresses the need for upgraded and proper teaching in English.

The report asks to decentralise the education administration, while retaining the existing educational structure, to reduce hassle of the grassroots people.

Prof Moniruzzaman told The Daily Star yesterday his team made the recommendations with a holistic approach, keeping in mind what could be implemented immediately.

He said to encourage international standard research, centres of excellence could be established at different universities.

The 340-page report contains separate lists of recommendations for development of primary and mass education, secondary, higher secondary and higher education and suggests institution of a permanent education commission to implement those. A permanent commission is also required, it says, to identify and assess problems and find out remedies through continuous research and brainstorming and put those to work.

The report underscores the need for using modern technologies including internet, computer, television and radio to build an educated and science- and technology-savvy nation.

It prescribes a suitable salary structure for teachers to encourage them to teaching. The code of conduct and rules for promotion of teachers also should be 'respectable', it adds.

It asks for strengthening teachers' training, rearrangement of curricula and making registration obligatory for all primary schools irrespective of formal, non-formal, kindergarten and NGO-run ones.

The commission thinks a new examination system should be introduced that does not just declare a pass and a fail but evaluates the quality of learning achieved by the students. It, however, keeps public examinations out of the purview of the system.

Encouraging higher educational facilities in private sector, despite their high costs, the commission suggests establishing an accreditation council to maintain the standard of education.

It advises the government to refrain from establishing single-discipline public universities, e.g. on agriculture, engineering and medicine, as the concept is against universal education and the basic norms of university-level education.

It asks the authorities to ensure impartial enrolment at university and take appropriate measures for eliminating session jams.

It also recommends establishing at least 100 primary schools a year for the next 10 years after conducting a school mapping that will identify the localities deprived of or in need of more schooling facilities, like remote areas and areas of indigenous people.