Professor Emeritus at BRAC University and internationally renowned educationist Dr Manzoor Ahmed is leading the advisory committee for improving the quality of primary and secondary education in the country.
He recently sat down with TIMES of Bangladesh’s Aleem Haider and spoke in detail about the country’s overall education system, touching on key issues currently plaguing the system, from political interference and bureaucratic control to how schoolteachers remain underappreciated, and the obstacles to forming a neutral education commission and developing a universal education curriculum.
Aleem Haider: Throughout the year, teachers from schools, colleges, and madrasas have been carrying out different protests and movements, leading to several institutions suspending examinations. Overall, how do you think Bangladesh’s education sector has fared in 2025?
Dr Manzoor Ahmed: This year has not gone well for education. However, the matter needs to be seen from a broader perspective. After the mass uprising of 2024, there was a desire for social change, with a lot of hope for the education sector. But so far, no progress has been made.
In the past, there was no opportunity for democratic discussion on education. Therefore, demands, claims, grievances, and complaints have found expression through movements after uprising. Teachers have been able to carry out movements due to Bangladesh’s return to a democratic environment.
For the most part, teachers’ grievances regarding the system are reasonable. Teachers have demands regarding salary-allowances, dignity, promotions, management of educational institutions, amongst a host of other issues. While the government has put forward certain measures to bring the situation under control, the government has yet to issue a comprehensive plan that addresses all these issues long simultaneously.
Stopping exams from taking place and taking to the streets is not the most logical way to go about things, but it is questionable how sincere the government was regarding the teachers’ grievances.
During the mass uprising, promises were made to repair the state as a whole, not just change the government. The people of the country wanted a transformation of the system. After the uprising, 11 major reform commissions were formed, but no commission was formed for education. This disappointed educationists such as myself.
Why was no reform commission formed for the education system?
This is a continuation of history. Education has always been a neglected area. Since the country’s independence, several education commissions have been formed, but in the past 54 years, no comprehensive initiative has ever been taken to implement the recommendations of these commissions.
Yet, a quarter of the country’s population, at least 40 million people, are students. And if you include their families and teachers, then the majority of the country’s population is connected to the education system in some way. Almost everyone is invested in and concerned about our education system. But this time, too, nothing was done regarding our education sector.
The 2010 National Education Policy mentioned a permanent National Education Commission. But no government has taken measures to implement it.
Why do governments fail or refuse to take any initiative regarding education reform?
Politicians have traditionally not been too keen to bring education to the forefront due to narrow partisan interests that cater to the broader interest of society or the nation. Politicians have never thought deeply about education and adopted a comprehensive goal or plan regarding it.
As such, bureaucrats have filled that void. Therefore, their words are prioritised in the education sector. They are doing what is necessary for their own benefit. Bureaucrats generally favour maintaining the status quo. Educationists have never had sufficient influence in education-related decisions. They still don’t.
Next year, schools will receive new textbooks which have undergone certain changes regarding the country’s history, apart from which no significant changes were made. How do you view this practice of content change in school textbooks alongside changes in the government?
Curriculum is not being thought about properly. Who will be in political power, what their ideology is, how they prefer the curriculum – these things have to be considered. Education is a political matter, that is correct. But politics should benefit the education sector and society at large. Instead, the education sector is being used for short-sighted, self-serving political interests.
Political considerations should not be the priority when it comes to the curriculum. The primary goal of the sector should be on improving students’ moral and social awareness and their intellectual capabilities. It should be to build up the next generation.
Can politicians bring changes to the education system if they wished to?
There must be political commitment at the state and highest administrative levels for the development of education. It is necessary to think about what the political responsibility regarding education should be. But there is ambiguity in the thinking of political parties regarding education.
There can be differences in political ideologies, but it is necessary to ensure universally acceptable goals in education. We haven’t seen any action regarding this for the last 15 years during the Awami League government’s rule, and the situation was more or less the same before them.
Those who have the prospect of forming the government ahead – BNP, Jamaat, NCP, leftist parties – their position on education is also unclear.
BNP has touched on some conventional matters regarding the education system in its 31-point plan. Jamaat may have some religion-based goals, but they have not said anything clearly and we remain in the dark regarding their plans. I also do not know if NCP has any position on education, apart from a few vague words here and there.
One does not have much room to be very optimistic.
You were the head of the advisory committee for improving primary education. Now the advisory committee for improving secondary education is also working under your leadership. Will we see any major changes this time round?
After the uprising, no initiative was taken for the overall improvement of the education system. This committee was formed in October 2024. This committee submitted a 200-page report for improvements in the primary education sector.
Over a hundred recommendations were made across eight areas, which the chief adviser was briefed on in February. He told us that this was an important matter, and that something must be done about it. Since then, several months have passed, but no comprehensive reform initiative was seen.
And what about secondary education?
An advisory committee was formed to improve the quality of secondary level education. Since the government will leave after the election, when will we get the time to implement these things? The ministry said that they wanted to leave some recommendations prepared for the incoming government.
So that what we are doing. But we have no idea where this is going exactly. We hope that whoever forms the government next will prioritise education.
Recently, we have seen that the relationship between teachers and students have severely deteriorated. How can we improve this in the future?
The student-teacher relationship is not an isolated problem. Both sides have certain responsibilities. The overall educational environment, administrative structure, university management policies – whether they do their work properly, whether decisions are made keeping the sector’s interests in mind, this is important.
In teacher organisations, we have seen the emergence of various kinds of factions and political divisions. These teachers have become politicised. This has led to an overall decline in the extent to which they care about students’ wellbeing. How can their relationship improve when the environment necessary for that to take place is missing?
The matter must be seen by all stakeholders as a social problem and a social responsibility.
