Are our schools inherently designed to fail?
School management suffers due to the absence of a headmaster or an assistant headmaster's leadership
1 December 2025, 02:00 AM
Literacy in Bangladesh is still a distant dream
The history of literacy in Bangladesh suggests a confusion about what literacy skills mean and how these are taught.
18 September 2025, 03:00 AM
Can decentralisation improve primary school outcomes in Bangladesh?
Effective schools and learners through decentralised governance may make a difference in primary school education.
26 July 2025, 02:00 AM
Education in FY2026 budget / Action fails to match rhetoric again
A clear sense of direction and strategy for the education system is lacking, as it has been under past political governments.
11 June 2025, 04:00 AM
Primary teachers’ strike: Is reform stumbling?
Primary school assistant teachers began an indefinite work abstention for higher entry-level pay.
28 May 2025, 02:00 AM
Has the reform drive lost its way?
The interim government need not be too apologetic for its record, but it would be a shame not to make the best of the opportunity history has bestowed it.
13 May 2025, 04:00 AM
Priorities and challenges for the new education adviser
The primary and non-formal education sub-sector reform initiative is a positive but partial move that leaves major education sector concerns unaddressed.
13 March 2025, 02:00 AM
EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE / Are myths and misperceptions influencing policymaking?
Are policies and actions regarding preparing young people for work and livelihood influenced by myths and misperceptions about the problems and their workable solutions?
25 February 2025, 18:00 PM
Why is the education budget not larger?
On average, a teacher handles 50 students, when it should be no more than 30. Can it be denied that much more should be spent on primary education and at other stages of education?
17 May 2016, 18:00 PM
A new education law – Will it help?
How important is it to have an overall law for the education system and what can it do to solve the many problems in ensuring the management and quality of the system?
7 April 2016, 18:00 PM
Matching education, training, skills and jobs
Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET), or even a broader concept of Technicals-Vocational Skills Development (TVSD)...
2 February 2016, 18:00 PM
Do our children have the right to education?
Does the Constitution of Bangladesh recognise education as a right? The plain answer is no.
18 January 2016, 18:00 PM
Keeping the promise to our children
Mariam, a bright nine-year old girl with dangling ponytails, sat in one of the middle rows in a class of about 50 students in a rural primary school.
31 December 2015, 18:00 PM
Children and Poverty
Protecting the rights of children and providing the essentials for their development must be part of the definition of poverty reduction.
6 November 2015, 18:00 PM
EACH CHILD TO A LOCAL SCHOOL
Each six-year-old child would be admitted to a neighbourhood primary school without being subjected to a qualifying test – this is how it should work because the country has a mandatory education law in place since 1990. But it hardly works this way.
14 October 2015, 18:00 PM
The 21st Century Teacher
Unlike many countries, Bangladesh does not have a pre-service teacher education programme, although school teaching is the single largest field of employment for college graduates.
4 October 2015, 18:00 PM
The challenges ahead
Heads of states or governments of the world will meet at the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 25-27 to proclaim a new global agenda for sustainable development to be realised by 2030 (SDG 2030), replacing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 2015), which was adopted 15 years ago at a UN Summit.
16 September 2015, 18:00 PM
PRIMARY EDUCATION: LEARNERS OR JUST TEST-TAKERS?
The primary education authorities – especially the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) – must be busily preparing for the Primary Education Completion Examination (PECE) or Shomaponi to be held in November.
18 August 2015, 18:00 PM
Paving the way to future?
In an article for The Daily Star, I had written:“A new National Education Policy was announced by the government in June 2010.
11 March 2015, 11:36 AM