Admission halted at 246 technical institutions, 112 more on the list

The Bangladesh Technical Education Board has suspended student admissions at 246 technical education institutions across the country that have been operating without adequate activities or enrolment.

Of these, 137 offer diploma-level courses and 109 offer HSC (BMT—Business Management and Technology) programmes.

In addition, steps have been taken to suspend admissions at another 112 technical education institutions and revoke their teaching approval.

The information was obtained from sources at the Technical Education Board. No students have been admitted to these institutions for three consecutive years. All of them are private institutions.

Technical Education Board Chairman Md Ruhul Amin told Prothom Alo that, after completing the required procedures, student admissions for the 2026–27 academic year had been suspended at 137 diploma-level and 109 HSC (BMT) institutions. Decisions regarding more such institutions will be taken gradually, he said.

Earlier, show-cause notices were issued to 621 institutions running vocational education programmes over similar allegations. These institutions have also had no student enrolment or educational activities for a long time.

Of them, 443 are authorised to offer SSC (Vocational) programmes and 178 to offer Dakhil (Vocational) programmes.

A senior official of the Technical Education Board told Prothom Alo on Wednesday that many of the vocational institutions had responded to the show-cause notices, while some had not.

The responses will now be compiled and sent to the Ministry of Education. With the ministry’s approval, the institutions’ teaching authorisation will be revoked and other necessary measures taken, the official said.

According to records of the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, 621 of the country’s 3,440 institutions authorised to offer vocational education had not enrolled a single student for five consecutive years, from 2021 to 2025.

According to Technical Education Board sources, steps have been taken to suspend admissions from the 2027–28 academic year at 86 diploma-level and 26 HSC (BMT) institutions. They have also been served show-cause notices asking why their teaching authorisation should not be revoked.

They have been asked to respond by 1 October. Further action will be taken after the responses are received. These institutions have also had no student enrolment for three consecutive years.

Technical Education Board sources said the conditions for approval to conduct educational activities stipulate that an institution’s teaching authorisation will be revoked if it fails to enrol students for three consecutive years.

Under the policy on the establishment, operation and recognition of private diploma-level technical education institutions, the board may, with government approval, revoke an institution’s teaching authorisation if it fails to meet, within the stipulated period, conditions imposed when approval was granted. These include requirements related to results, infrastructure, teachers and staff, recruitment, management committees, furniture, equipment and libraries.

One of the 86 diploma-level institutions that received show-cause notices is Metropolitan Private Polytechnic Institute in the BCE Mor area of Mahadebpur in Rangpur Sadar.

When contacted by phone, the institute’s director, Nurul Islam, told Prothom Alo that no students had enrolled at the institution for the past three academic years. However, some students who had enrolled earlier are still studying there. He said the institution had not yet received any show-cause notice from the Technical Education Board.

There are currently around 1,900 technical education institutions offering HSC (BMT) programmes in the country. Around 600 institutions offer diploma-level education.

According to data from the Technical Education Board for the 2024–25 fiscal year, technical education was being provided at a total of 12,932 institutions in the country as of June last year. The government has set a target of increasing the share of students in technical and vocational education to 30 per cent by 2030.

There are currently 10 types of four-year diploma courses. The Diploma in Engineering has the highest number of students. Although the course is offered in 32 trades, not all trades are available at every institution.

These courses are currently offered at 56 government and 612 private polytechnic institutes across the country.

However, a large number of seats remain vacant. Private polytechnic institutes have more than 160,000 seats, but only 30,614 students enrolled in the 2024–25 fiscal year.

Vocational education is also available from Class VI, but many seats in these programmes remain unfilled.

According to the Technical Education Board’s annual report, there are more than 1.974 million seats in technical education. Around 950,000 students enrolled in the 2024–25 fiscal year.

Education experts have alleged that although a large number of private technical education institutions were approved without proper planning, many of them were not provided with adequate teachers, laboratories or educational equipment.

As a result, the quality of education is being affected, while students are also losing interest in technical education, they said.

They said policymakers have long emphasised the importance of technical education, but there have been few effective initiatives to improve its quality. Technical education institutions should be approved based on student demand, labour-market needs and institutional capacity, they said.

Practical measures should also be taken regarding institutions where no educational activities are taking place.