A Research Paper on Education System of Bangladesh

Getting access to basic education has been a fundamental human right of every citizen of a country. This fundamental right has been denied to a large section of the population lying particularly below the poverty line in many developing countries of the world including Bangladesh. Acute poverty in their families may be singled out as the major cause behind such situation. Recognizing the critical importance of transforming them into effective human resources and thereby making them worthy citizens the Millennium Summit that held in Dakar back in 2000 declared ‘achieving universal primary education’ as one of its major agendas.

As set out in the Millennium declaration this goal, known as MDG 2, has been the goal for providing access to primary education to all by the year 2015. However, Bangladesh, as a Signatory to the Dakar declaration expressed strong commitment towards achieving the goal of universal primary education which has sustainable positive implications for reduction in poverty by significantly large margin. In the words of Dr. A. M. R. Chowdhury, deputy executive director of BRAC, Bangladesh’s leading institution for non-formal education: “Education is the backbone of sustainable development.

Education stimulates and empowers people to participate in their own development”1. A plan for sustainable development must address the issue of education because it plays a critical role not only in expanding further educational opportunities, but also in fostering basic intellectual abilities such as literacy that are crucial to success in a world where power is closely linked with knowledge. In Bangladesh the expansion of primary education is crucial, just as it is in other developing nations within South Asia and beyond.

Bangladesh’s low literacy rate (39%) is one of the many low development indicators that remind us how far our nation has yet to go in its pursuit of sustainable development. 2 Primary education has been a priority in Bangladeshi politics since independence from Pakistan in 1971. However up until recent times, enrollment, as well as government spending on the education sector, has remained very low; little progress was seen in the primary education sector throughout the 1970s and 80s.

The Bangladesh government is proud that its education programs dramatically improved in the 1990s, especially during the latter half of the decade. The 90s saw a rekindled dedication to the expansion of education and as a consequence the Bangladeshi education system experienced significant enhancement during this period. A large part of this renewed commitment was a direct result of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA), which encouraged all participating nations to expand their vision to meet goals in the education sector, especially the goal of making primary education universal.

The Government of Bangladesh itself took many initiatives in the years following the WCEFA, including: the 1993 Compulsory Primary Education Act, which made the five-year primary education program free in all government schools and declared education for girls in rural areas free through grade eight; the establishment of the ministry for Primary and Mass Education in 1992, which set as its objective the globalization of education as well as the elimination of the gender- and poverty-gaps; demand-side interventions such as the Female Stipend program, the Food for Education (FFE) program; and most recently the Primary Education Development Program (PEDP II), a six-year program beginning in the year 2000 which aims to increase access, quality and efficiency across the board in the primary education sector . These measures have resulted in impressive gains in the achievement of Bangladesh’s primary education goals.

Nationwide enrollment rates have sharply increased, dropout rates have gone down, significant progress has been made in raising equality of access between different geographic and socioeconomic groups. 3 Our objective of doing this research paper is to evaluate the Education condition in Bangladesh over the decades and analyzing the present condition of Bangladesh education. We worked here on the History of Education , Comparison of Four Decades , we try to relate it with MDG’s ,The Challenges that we already have overcome in our past and also mention about the present and future Challenges and also we share some recommendation to improve the condition. As we are the students of RS semester we cannot go outside of campus for collecting primary source .

That’s why we use Secondary Source in our research paper such as internet,books,newspapers etc. Rising History in the Education Start of formal primary education in the Bangladesh region dates back to 1854 and literacy activities at individual initiatives to 1918. At liberation in December 1971, the literacy rate in the country was only 16. 8 percent4. Bangladesh has since made remarkable advances in championing the causes of education and making it a serious public purpose. Historically, education had been the exclusive preserve of the elite and, mostly the male. As time passed, female education was encouraged by allowing co-education as well as by setting up some separate institutions for girls.

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, adopted in 1972, acknowledged education as a basic right of the people and enjoined on the State to ensure the provision of universal and compulsory free primary education to all children, relating education to the needs of the society and removing illiteracy. The Government nationalized and took over 36,165 primary schools in 1973 and regularized it under the Primary Education (Taking Over) Act of 19745. The Government also declared 157,724 primary school teachers as government employees. Primary education was free and made compulsory under the Primary Education (Compulsory) Act 1990, implemented initially in 68 upazillas (sub-districts) in 1992 and extended to the rest of the country from 19936.

To emphasize the importance of primary education the government separated it from the Directorate of Public Instruction and set up the Directorate of Primary Education in 19807. At the same time, the government also started a massive Mass Education program to impart literacy to illiterates. Such measures led to an increase of literacy rate to 24. 8 percent by 19918. Analyzing the achievements of 90th decade, Bangladesh leads all other SAARC countries in net enrolment ratio (85%). More remarkably, Bangladesh has already achieved the MDG goal of gender parity in primary and secondary education. A social mobilization approach has energized popular demand for education.