Building Competent Learners in Bangladesh: Evidence on Foundational Skills
Recommendations
- Future-ready, comprehension-led learning: Keep Bangladesh’s grade-wise benchmarks, but refocus them on literacy and numeracy plus problem-solving, reasoning and socio-emotional skills. Teach for meaning and application, and align classroom and public assessments to reward understanding over memorisation.
- Reform tutoring incentives: Strengthen exam integrity and assessment design to reduce leaks, grade inflation and coaching dependence. Enforce conflict-of-interest rules and institutionalise in-school remedial learning, including skill-grouped “Teaching at the Right Level” models.
- Accountability to communities: Make parent-teacher forums and school committees functional through clear authority, transparency and accessible grievance pathways. Use catchment planning so schools and resources follow need, not influence.
- Target equity with smart financing: Direct funding to proven supports—books, teacher coaching, remedial time and meals where relevant—especially for rural and low-income areas. Strengthen identification and support for children with functional difficulties and other marginalised learners.
- Fix the data spine: Harmonise education data across agencies and ensure it is usable for planning and accountability. Repeat household-based measurement (including out-of-school and over-age children) and sustain oversight to track progress beyond 2030.
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Syeed Ahamed
CEO
Institute of Informatics and Development
Bangladesh’s enrollment gains are impressive, but our study points to a deep, system-wide learning crisis in primary education: many children finish primary school without mastering Grade 2–level skills. As a member of the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network, IID conducted household-based, one-on-one assessments of children aged 5 to 16—whether in school or out—across all 64 districts, using a nationally representative sample provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The study used ICAN-ICAR (International Common Assessments of Numeracy and Reading), which has been verified by UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics for tracking SDG indicator 4.1.1(a). The results are stark. Scores rise with each grade, yet only about 47% of Grade 5 completers reach basic proficiency. More than 95% can recognize Bangla letters, but just 66% of Grade 5 students can answer a basic question about a short paragraph; only 52% can solve simple word problems. Rural children lag their urban peers by 10–15 percentage points. Even with 57% relying on private tutoring, Bangladesh ranks only mid-tier globally—an alarm bell for a reform-minded “new Bangladesh.”
Dr. Sumera Ahsan
Professor, Institute of Education and Research
University of Dhaka
A competency-based tool may favor children who have been in school: textbook-style examples can disadvantage out-of-school learners, and disability can depress results when many children are excluded altogether. Grade-based findings should be separated from age-based ones—many 11–13-year-olds are still in primary grades—because the picture changes depending on the comparison. Gender gaps appear small, but the rural–urban divide persists. Widespread private tutoring signals a shadow system propping up weak schools. Reading performance remains poor even when assessed in Bangla, leaving no easy scapegoat. The report offers a snapshot, not a diagnosis, and should prompt deeper, context-specific inquiry into who is falling behind and why.
Samir Ranjan Nath
Programme Head
BRAC Institute of Educational Development
Bangladesh’s tutoring boom isn’t a quirky parental choice; it reflects a market engineered by failure inside schools. In one Dhaka school, students did poorly in Bangla midyear and then flocked to the same Bangla teacher for paid coaching—until the Islamiyat teacher followed suit, issuing low marks to recruit clients. When teachers can profit from not teaching well, families will keep buying “help.” Tutoring also surged around the Grade 5 and 8 public exams, then fell when those exams were dropped during Covid. Centralized assignments sent from Dhaka to villages reinforced the sense that local teachers were not trusted to design their own lessons. The remedy is straightforward: fix classrooms, empower teachers, and design exams that reward understanding, not memorization.
Sherin Akhter
Program Officer, Education Unit
UNESCO
After two decades of working with development partners, Bangladesh is still asking the same question: why don’t children learn? Recent SDG 4 discussions highlighted staffing gaps—about 8,000 secondary teacher posts vacant and roughly 34,000 head-teacher positions unfilled across 64,000 primary schools. But shortages are compounded by weak management and unreliable information. Policymakers cannot plan without credible numbers, yet BANBEIS, DPE and DSHE produce data that do not align, with little interoperability. Teachers described low pay, heavy workloads and limited support; many stay out of commitment, but mentoring and monitoring rarely improve practice. The priorities are clear: assess teachers and officials as well as students, create genuine career pathways, and fund education at least at UNESCO’s recommended 4% of GDP.
Khandaker Lutful Khaled
Education Advisor
Institute of Informatics and Development
Children shouldn’t need a second school after school. About 58% depend on private tutoring, clear evidence that classroom instruction is failing and that low-income families pay the price. Teacher preparation needs an overhaul: pre-service training is limited, and in-service courses often fail to change classroom practice. Schools must expand remedial support so children can catch up without coaching, while the state considers steps to rein in the tutoring market. Teachers also need a stronger collective voice, alongside community oversight that makes parent-teacher groups and school committees more than names on paper. Covid-era digital gaps—only 18.7% could keep learning—and tea-garden schooling averaging 2.9 years underscore the inequality. Education should be treated as a constitutional right, backed by a Right to Education Act.
Mushfiq Us Salehin
Joint Member Secretary
National Citizen Party
Bangladesh is grading itself into complacency. The obsession with GPA-5 rewards inflated results and pushes schools to chase rankings instead of real comprehension. Primary education has been starved of incentives: low pay, weak facilities and economic pressure keep both teachers and students from staying the course. Question leaks also feed the coaching economy, reinforcing a system that prioritises exam tactics over learning. Political parties should put teacher pay and status, stronger training, and a stable, well-implemented curriculum at the centre of their manifestos. The stronger performance of some army- and missionary-run schools suggests that governance and corruption in school management bodies can make or break quality. Culture-war skirmishes distract from the basics—ensuring children actually learn.
Barrister Nasreen Sultana Mily
Joint General Secretary
Amar Bangladesh Party
Bangladesh’s schooling is fractured long before children reach adulthood. Multiple streams—Bangla medium, English medium/version and madrasa—combined with a sharp rural–urban gap leave too many children without equal chances. The priority is a common floor, not a single uniform system: regardless of medium, every child should meet minimum proficiency in Bangla, English, mathematics and science by Grade 3. But test scores will not improve if the learning environment remains weak. In too many schools, “computer” lessons are taught on a blackboard, and teachers respond to conflict by filing complaints rather than building students’ social skills. Children shaped by the Covid years are also showing anxiety and speech delays, while specialist support such as speech therapy remains scarce outside Dhaka. Early childhood development should be treated as a national priority.
Kazi Jesin
Media Personality
Bangladesh’s education crisis rarely makes news unless it comes with a fight. The national conversation fixates on enrollment tallies and official sound bites, while the harder question—why schools fail to build real reading and maths—gets little investigative attention. Stories about teacher–student relationships, rural–urban gaps and the tutoring economy do not draw sponsors or clicks the way scandal and shouting do. But families absorb the cost, paying for coaching that should be unnecessary. Stronger teacher support and professional forums are needed, alongside research on changing student needs and an end to politicised hiring and school governance. When police crack down on teachers’ protests, the state sends a damaging message: the profession has no dignity.
Md Khalid Saifullah
Assistant Director
Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education
Quality education begins with quality teachers, not higher enrollment charts. Bangladesh once chased “quantity,” but SDG-era commitments make foundational reading and numeracy the real test. A major obstacle is a chaotic, politicised teacher pipeline: multiple recruitment routes, uneven standards, and then automatic absorption into government pay scales. Training helps, but it cannot replace basic capacity, so policy must begin with selecting stronger candidates and treating education as a core state responsibility, not charity. A dedicated education commission—similar to those in other sectors—could standardise recruitment, grading, promotion and accountability, and help attract and retain qualified teachers. Enforcing school catchment areas would also ensure new schools are approved on need, not political pressure.
Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin
Senior Information Officer
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Bangladesh’s teacher-quality problem is rooted in mass decisions made without standards. The nationalisations of 1973 and 2013 brought large numbers of schools and teachers into the system without adequate vetting, weakening quality over time. Recent reforms aim to reverse that trend through more competitive recruitment, efforts to attract stronger candidates, and upgrades to pay and professional status. A nationwide school-feeding programme is also being used to support attendance and retention, while Dhaka is rebuilding 342 primary schools as modern multi-storey facilities. The pandemic exposed the limits of remote learning; the priority now is improving in-person instruction through better teachers, stronger management, and supportive infrastructure.
Dr. Md. Harunur Rashid
Assistant Director
National Academy for Educational Management
When children blame their teachers, it is worth paying attention. UNESCO’s 2024 Price of Inaction warns that 42% of learners fall below basic skills, and that narrowing the learning gap by 10% could raise annual GDP growth by 1–2%. In Bangladesh, 21% miss basic maths and science proficiency, and only 30% read Bangla well. NAEM research also suggests students consider 65% of teachers unfit—an aftershock of mass nationalisations that brought underqualified staff into classrooms, gaps that training alone may not fix. The response must include strict monitoring and an exit pathway for persistently ineffective teachers. Private tutoring is not a hobby; it is what families buy when schools do not teach, while mission- and army-run schools often perform through uncompromising administration.
Dilruba Ahmed
Director (Deputy Secretary)
National Academy for Primary Education
Bangladesh has built more classrooms; now it has to build better teaching. NAPE will pilot a redesigned 10-month Diploma in Primary Education in 12 Primary Training Institutes in 2026 to attract candidates who choose teaching as a career. To strengthen early reading, the plan includes steps schools can implement immediately: a daily reading hour, stronger library routines, and improved training for Bengali instructors. NAPE also intends to use a cascade model—preparing strong teachers in each upazila to coach others through cluster-based support—and is testing a supplementary Bengali reader alongside Grade 1–2 texts in 30 schools before recommending wider rollout. The message is clear: quality will improve only if teachers are properly supported and all stakeholders remain engaged.
Jenia Kabir Suchona
Senior Reporter
Channel 24
Bangladesh treats education news like a calendar event: results day, admissions day, repeat. Most outlets spotlight board exam scores and a handful of “good” schools, while the deeper crisis—especially in Bangla-medium classrooms—goes largely unreported. Special reporting on frequent curriculum changes, teaching methods, and who should be held accountable remains rare, even though these are the questions parents raise on the ground. Part of the problem is access: schools and authorities often will not speak on record, and visual media depends on willing voices and permissions. Still, the media’s role is to act as a public watchdog—using its “third eye” to track policy zigzags, teacher readiness, and school management until reform becomes unavoidable.
Kazi Ferdous Pavel
Senior Joint Director
Institute of Informatics and Development
Benchmarks don’t teach children; they should tell teachers what to change. ICAN-ICAR were designed as a common framework used in roughly 12-15 countries, allowing comparison without ignoring context. The global report is only a starting point; the next step is a Bangladesh-specific analysis, followed by a South Asia comparison to identify shared constraints and opportunities. The urgent task is to strengthen comprehension in reading and mathematics—so skills connect to meaning, not memorisation. That requires work at both system and community levels, including catch-up approaches such as Teaching at the Right Level. Progress toward 2030 will depend on producing consistent, actionable data and building partnerships that turn measurement into reform.
Dr. Manzoor Ahmed
Professor Emeritus
BRAC University
Bangladesh doesn’t lack evidence; it lacks follow-through. The household lens of ICAN-ICAR is valuable, but SDG 4’s promise of universal, quality schooling through Grade 10 will remain out of reach without political commitment. The 2010 education policy is still largely unimplemented, replaced by piecemeal, centralised directives. Multiple assessments—from the National Student Assessment and Education Watch to international measures—keep returning the same verdict: roughly half of children complete primary school without basic reading, writing and numeracy. “Weighing the cow” won’t make it grow; assessment must be designed to trigger action, identify struggling schools, and support them locally as communities of teachers, parents and students. Continuity requires a permanent education commission—and a social compact that holds leaders to delivery, not rhetoric.
Tanjim Ferdous
In-charge, NGOs & Foreign Missions
The Daily Star
(Moderator of the Session)
Access is no longer Bangladesh’s education problem; learning is. The ICAN-ICAR household assessment—run across all 64 districts—offers a chance to shift the debate from enrollment and exam scores to real reading and numeracy, while also placing Bangladesh’s equity gaps in a global context. The discussion needs to move from diagnosis to implementation: what must change by 2030, how teacher quality and crowded classrooms constrain competency, and why teachers often teach better in private coaching than in school. That incentive problem cannot be solved by salary increases alone. The next step is practical and collaborative: share technical notes and research so the media, researchers and partners can turn evidence into sustained reporting, advocacy and reform.
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