Secondary education in disarray, reliance on coaching and private tutors

At the 190-year-old Dhaka Collegiate School, this correspondent was talking to a teacher in the staff room talking on 11 September. Another teacher returned from class and said he had just taken two classes at the same time — one in Bangla and another in Agricultural Studies. But he is actually a teacher of Accounting. The shortage of teachers has forced him to take subjects outside his own discipline.

A physics teacher sitting nearby added that he too has to teach Physical Education in addition to his own subject. Taking five to six classes a day — nearly 25 classes a week — makes it difficult to teach effectively.

Located in the Sadarghat area, Dhaka Collegiate School is known as the first government high school in undivided Bengal. On 11 September, it was found that the school has about two thousand students in two shifts but only 39 teachers, while 14 of the 53 teaching posts remain vacant. On average, there is one teacher for every 51 students, making it hard to ensure quality teaching in the classroom.

Two students at the school said they rely on coaching centers and private tutors for regular study support. One said he takes lessons from two tutors at home, costing him about Tk 6,500 per month.

The situation at Dhaka Collegiate reflects the state of secondary education across the country — and in many cases, the situation is even worse. A shortage of teachers, lack of subject-specific instructors, and poor teaching quality prevent students from acquiring necessary skills, leading to a dropout rate of 33 per cent at the secondary level, according to the Bangladesh Education Statistics 2023 report.

Affluent parents can afford private tutors at home. Coaching centers are booming. Middle-income parents are under financial strain from paying for private tutoring and coaching fees. Poor families cannot afford either, leaving their children at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, public and MPO-listed schools continue to receive taxpayer funding, and private schools charge high tuition and admission fees — yet the quality of education remains questionable.

This dependence on coaching and private tutors is not limited to Dhaka — it’s a nationwide trend. A parent of an eighth-grader in Mymensingh told Prothom Alo that his son attends coaching in the morning, then school, then another coaching session in the afternoon, followed by a home tutor in the evening.

He said it is expensive, but there’s no other choice.

This crisis in education has been ongoing for many years. No government has taken any major effective initiative to improve the quality of education. As a result, children from poor families have been deprived of quality education, while those from well-off families have advanced.

After assuming office, the current interim government formed commissions on 11 different areas, but excluded education. A committee headed by educationist and BRAC University emeritus professor Manzoor Ahmad was formed to provide recommendations for improving the quality of primary and non-formal education. However, progress in implementing that committee’s recommendations has been minimal.

When asked about the overall problems in secondary education and the role of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), its Director General, Professor Muhammad Azad Khan, told Prothom Alo that the secondary education sector has been facing multifaceted crises for a long time. There is a shortage of sufficient teachers. As a result, regular classes are not held properly in schools. Distorted alternatives like coaching and private tutoring have become substitutes, leading to dropouts among students from low-income families.

The DG of DSHE further said that secondary schools have long struggled to run full academic activities because of factors such as issues with MPO (government subsidies for teachers and staff salaries), inadequate positions, the opening of branches, the negative role of many School Management Committees (SMCs), and political decisions. He said problems still remain, but they have been identified, and various measures are being taken to resolve them.

In Bangladesh, grades six through ten are considered secondary education. However, the 2010 National Education Policy defined primary education as up to grade eight and secondary education as up to grade twelve. The same recommendation was made earlier in 1974 by the Bangladesh Education Commission led by Dr Kudrat-e-Khuda. No government has implemented either.

Dr Kudrat-e-Khuda’s Education Commission report stated that the objectives of secondary education were to supply skilled workers for the labor market and prepare meritorious students for higher education. But educationists say that the current substandard state of secondary education fails to fulfill either objective.

Secondary education now includes general schools, madrasas, English-medium schools, and technical institutions. According to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), there are 18,968 general secondary schools across the country, of which only 628 are government-run. The total number of secondary students is 8.17 million, taught by about 247,000 teachers. Additionally, there are 1,480 school-and-college institutions (63 government), with around 1.61 million students and 55,000 teachers.

Private schools previously recruited teachers independently. Now, recruitment is conducted through examinations under the Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA). However, the major teacher shortage lies in government schools. According to DSHE data, around 3,500 positions—including head teachers, assistant head teachers, senior teachers, and assistant teachers—are vacant in government secondary schools, which is about 20 per cent of the total posts. Teachers say the number of posts in the organogram is already low, and on top of that, many remain unfilled. Numerous positions, including those of district education officers and deputy directors, have also been vacant for a long time.

The 2010 Education Policy had targeted reducing the teacher-student ratio in schools to 1:30 by 2018 (one teacher for every 30 students). But in government schools, the current average ratio remains 1:37—and in some schools, it is even higher.

Among government schools, the Government Laboratory High School is notable. Yet, this school has had no head teacher for nearly a year. The assistant head teacher is currently serving in an acting capacity, performing both roles. Teachers at the school say that without a full-time head teacher, an institution cannot run properly.

When asked about the teacher shortage, DSHE Director (Secondary) Professor Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud told Prothom Alo that initiatives have been taken to address the issue. Efforts are underway to appoint teachers from among those who passed the BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) exam but did not secure cadre positions (non-cadre candidates). A proposal has already been submitted through the Education Ministry.

At present, the entry-level post in government secondary schools is Assistant Teacher. Most government secondary teachers retire after 30 to 35 years of service without any promotion. In 2018, a new position called “Senior Teacher” (9th grade) was created, and promotions were given in June 2021. Since then, no further promotions have been made.

Teachers complain that in professions like administration and police, promotions are easily granted—even when there are not enough posts—while teachers are consistently denied timely promotions.

Abdullah Al Nahian, an assistant teacher at Dhaka Collegiate School, told Prothom Alo, “Teachers’ salaries and allowances are already low, and promotional opportunities are limited. As a result, many qualified young people do not want to enter teaching.” He argued that if the entry-level post of assistant teacher were kept at the 9th grade and a four-to-six-tier promotion structure implemented, the problem could be largely solved.

For various reasons, regular classes are not held properly in secondary schools. Schools remain closed for much of the year. For instance, according to a research paper by Mostafizur Rahman, Deputy Director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), between August 2023 and September 2024—a span of 14 months—schools were closed for 279 out of 427 days, open only for 148 days.

In many secondary schools (especially government ones), the number of students per class is so high that teachers cannot give individual attention. Consequently, families are forced to rely on coaching centers and private tutors.

In March 2024, CAMPE published a research report titled “School Education in Bangladesh: Sustainable Post-Pandemic Recovery.” It revealed that in the first six months of 2023, household expenditure per student increased by 25 per cent at the primary level and 51 per cent at the secondary level compared to 2022. The main reasons for this increase were coaching fees, private tutoring, and the purchase of guidebooks.

According to a 2023 UNESCO study, 71 per cent of education-related expenses in Bangladesh are borne by families themselves. Experts believe the government should spend much more on education and health.
A recent study by the Monitoring and Evaluation Wing of DSHE found that students’ proficiency in English and Mathematics at the secondary level has deteriorated further. Students were already weak in these subjects, and their performance has worsened. Even in Bangla, students are performing worse than before (for more details, see the second part of the report on secondary education).

Many parents complain that teachers focus more on private tutoring than on classroom teaching. Many of them earn substantial incomes this way. Students who do not take private lessons from them are often given lower grades in exams.

According to the Education Ministry’s 2012 policy, no teacher is allowed to privately tutor students from their own institution. However, they may teach up to ten students from other schools per day. In reality, this rule is widely ignored. Teachers freely rent nearby apartments and run private coaching businesses.

Instead of textbooks, note and guidebooks have become the primary learning materials in secondary education. Some teachers collude with publishers and urge students to buy their guidebooks.

A parent of a student at Dhanmondi Government Boys’ High School, requesting anonymity, told Prothom Alo that students cannot do well without coaching or private tutors in subjects like Bangla, English, Mathematics, and Science. This forced him to hire a private tutor for his child. School tuition fees are minimal, but private tutoring costs a lot.

Apart from the lack of teacher competency, frequent changes in the education system further complicate the situation. Teachers do not receive adequate training, and as a result, they fail to build necessary skills.
In 2008, a “creative question system” was introduced in secondary-level examinations. Four years later, in 2012, a new curriculum was implemented. The Awami League government, which was ousted by the July uprising, introduced another new curriculum in 2022. However, the interim government has scrapped that curriculum and reinstated the 2012 version—at a time when ninth-grade students had already studied under the new system for almost a year. Since the syllabi for grades nine and ten are similar, next year’s SSC exam (for one year only) will be held based solely on the tenth-grade syllabus.

Now, the government plans to introduce a new curriculum again in 2027. Educationists say such frequent changes turn students into “guinea pigs” for new systems and tests.

Md Habib Ullah Khan, who retired on 3 October as principal of Dhaka Collegiate School, had served as a teacher for more than three decades and also as a district education officer for a period. In his view, improving the quality of secondary education requires resolving the teacher shortage and providing timely, updated training to teachers. To attract talented people to teaching, financial benefits and social prestige must be enhanced.