Experts and civil society leaders on Monday called for comprehensive education reforms in Bangladesh to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4), highlighting persistent challenges such as poverty, child labor, weak infrastructure, and educational disparities affecting marginalized communities.
The recommendations were made during a dialogue titled “SDG-4 Progress and Challenges in Bangladesh: Expectations from the Next Government,” held at the Bangladesh Tourism Corporation conference hall in Dhaka and organized by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).
The program was chaired by CAMPE Executive Director Rasheda K Chowdhury. CAMPE Program Manager Abdur Rauf presented the keynote paper, noting that while enrollment rates at primary and secondary levels have increased, many students still fail to achieve quality learning outcomes. He said children from tea gardens, chars, haor and hill tracts, indigenous communities, and those with disabilities are particularly disadvantaged.
Rauf called for allocating 4%–6% of GDP to education, introducing a universal school midday meal program, enhancing teachers’ status and capacity, ensuring universal literacy and numeracy at the primary level, and expanding lifelong learning opportunities.
The main discussant, Dr Manzoor Ahmed, convener of the Primary and Non-Formal Education Consultation Committee and the Secondary Education Advisory Committee, joined other speakers in urging a comprehensive education law, formation of a permanent education commission, increased budgetary allocation beyond SDG commitments, stronger parliamentary oversight, and protection of schools in disaster-prone areas.
Other speakers included Mohammad Golam Kibria, co-chair of the Education Local Consultative Group (ELCG); Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at CPD; Dr Fauzia Moslem, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad; Gaza-returnee physician and humanitarian aid worker Dr Nahreen Ahmed; university admission aspirant Asma Begum from Rights to Independent; and Loknath Biswas, president of Dumuria Youth Club in Khulna. The welcome address was delivered by CAMPE Deputy Director Tapan Kumar Das.
Participants emphasized modernizing curricula with market-relevant courses, creating job linkages, consulting students and guardians before repeated curriculum experiments, decentralizing decision-making, fully utilizing allocated education budgets, registering madrasa, kindergarten, and NGO schools, and integrating cultural subjects such as music and fine arts alongside technical education.
Key social recommendations included preventing violence against women, stopping child marriage, supporting dropout children, providing universal midday meals at primary and secondary levels, using gender budgets to improve women’s education, and allocating resources for persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized communities.
The program opened with a performance by an indigenous cultural troupe from Nachole in Chapainawabganj, affiliated with ASED, featuring traditional dances and songs in their native language.
The dialogue concluded with a decision to compile civil society recommendations and submit them to the next government to support education reforms and the achievement of SDG-4.