A few days ago, I read in a newspaper about a government decision. The decision was to establish a total of 600 educational institutions, two in each parliamentary constituency, modeled after cadet colleges. Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milan said that the plan had been taken to ensure a high-quality educational environment for the country’s meritorious students. The initial estimated cost of the project was Tk 68,442 crore (Tk 684.42 billion). However, it is reasonable to assume that the estimate would not hold during implementation and that the actual cost would exceed Tk 1 lakh crore (Tk 1 trillion).
In addition, the government would have to bear substantial recurring expenditure for each student enrolled. Apparently, the annual expenditure per student would be approximately Tk 600,000. Perhaps after considering all these factors, the government decided not to proceed further with the proposed project.
Being able to study at a cadet college is a tremendous privilege, and I am one of its beneficiaries. A cadet college has 30 teachers and more than 100 staff members for 300 students. If it were possible to provide all the children and adolescents in the country with opportunities of this kind, or even something close to that, nothing could be better. But before that, we need to look at the overall current state of primary and secondary education in the country.
According BANBEIS, there are a total of 21,086 junior schools and high schools in the country. Of these, only 691 are government schools, with an enrollment of 571,681 students. There are 19,757 private schools, with around 8.7 million students. Most of these private schools receive MPO status. However, 1,717 high schools and 1,629 junior high schools have yet to be brought under the MPO system. The government provides no financial assistance for running these schools. Teachers teach for ridiculously low salaries. And whenever they manage to secure even a low-level job as a peon or clerk in a government institution, they leave teaching.
There is considerable variation in per-student expenditure between government and MPO-listed schools. For example, Serajnagar MA Pilot High School in Raipura upazila of Narsingdi is an MPO-listed school. It has 1,505 students, boys and girls combined. Its annual expenditure per student is approximately Tk 9,700. Brahmandi KK Government High School in Narsingdi has 1,655 students, with an annual per-student expenditure of Tk 28,800. In the case of Barisal Zilla School, the per-student expenditure amounts to Tk 33,300.
More than 15 million children attend the country’s 65,000 government primary schools. Government inspections themselves have revealed the deplorable condition of these schools. Only 12 per cent of the schools are in good condition, while the remaining 88 per cent are in poor shape. Even the benchmark set for determining learning gaps was not particularly demanding, yet there are still glaring weaknesses in Bangla, English, and mathematics.
I have experience of being involved in the establishment and operation of a high school in a remote village. Of the 70 children who enrolled in Class Six at this school, 20 cannot read Bangla properly, let alone English.
This failure is not the fault of those children; it is the failure of the state, society, and teachers. By contrast, in Dhaka and many other cities, there are numerous private schools where such learning gaps do not exist and where students are capable of competing at the international level. This kind of “educational apartheid” in our school education system did not emerge overnight, nor can it be corrected all at once. But action must be taken now.
Our first priority should be to determine how we allocate expenditure on human-resource development. Creating a high-quality educational environment for talented students is certainly necessary. But before identifying and selecting such talent, we must ensure, at least to some extent, a level playing field.
The very first task should be to create access to a minimum standard of quality education for the vast number of primary-school students. Improving the quality of primary education should be the highest priority. Recruiting and training primary-school teachers should be the central focus of our efforts. If desired, Class Six could be brought under primary education. But before doing so, at least two additional trained teachers proficient in mathematics and English should be recruited for each school. At the same time, the inspection system needs to be strengthened so that primary-school teachers remain focused on teaching.
Education up to the secondary level is the right of every child, and there is no doubt that ensuring this right is the responsibility of the government.
In secondary education, our initial objective should be to bring up the 8.7 million students who are partially or completely disadvantaged. The remaining high schools must be brought under the MPO system. Schools with very small enrollments should, where necessary, be merged. And, over time, all secondary schools should be brought under government control.
How much attention can a teacher devote to teaching when he is waiting for an opportunity to get a clerical job? Teachers must be freed from the anxiety of having to find alternative livelihoods.
It may be impossible to spend Tk 600,000 per student on the 8.7 million disadvantaged secondary-school students. But surely it should be possible to spend at least Tk 28,800 or Tk 33,300 per student. This would require additional recurring expenditure of roughly Tk 25,000 crore (Tk 250 billion) a year. If necessary, this could be achieved over the next three years by cutting expenditure in other areas. In the days ahead, let education, and health, be our only mega projects. The second Padma Bridge can wait a few more years.
I must mention one positive decision taken by the government. In the 2026–27 fiscal year, Tk 136,000 crore (Tk 1.36 trillion) has been allocated to the education sector, equivalent to about 2 per cent of GDP. This is more than one and a half times the Tk 87,000 crore (Tk 870 billion) allocated in the previous fiscal year. I hope this trend will continue in the coming years. This is because the government has expressed its commitment to raising education spending to 5 per cent of GDP within the next five years.
Education up to the secondary level is the right of every child, and there is no doubt that ensuring this right is the responsibility of the government. At the inauguration of academic activities at Naogaon University on 18 July, Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milan said that Bangladesh would become an international education hub. It is certainly very pleasant to hear such words. At present, of course, this is a dream. But if we want to achieve something significant in reality, we must first dare to dream. The road to reaching this goal will be long and difficult.
There was a time when foreign students came to study at the University of Dhaka. Now our students are going abroad to study. The cost of studying in Germany is relatively low. Some young people who had already been admitted but were unable to obtain visas came to see me. It was painful to see the disappointment on their faces. I spoke with the German ambassador. He told me, clearly distressed, that the embassy had 80,000 student visa applications pending from applicants who had received admission approval from German universities. The Dhaka mission has the capacity to process only 2,000 applications a year. At that rate, it would take 40 years to clear the backlog!
We must first establish the confidence of our students and their parents in our higher-education system. Only then will international students come here to study with genuine interest. Plan for the next 30 years to achieve this goal, but start now.
* Md. Touhid Hossain, former Foreign Affairs Adviser to the interim government
* The views expressed here are those of the author.
* This article appeared in Prothom Alo print and online and has been translated by Ayesha Kabir for Prothom Alo English Online