The education landscape in Bangladesh is complex. On the supply side, statutory provision for education, between ages 5-14 years, supports an estimated 38,000 primaries and 23,000 high schools. Whilst there is a diverse independent sector, public-private partnerships are yet to flourish.
On the demand side, 26% of the country's population is aged up to 14 years old -- the statutory age range -- with a high success rate in primary enrolment of 98% (Statista) and an improving completion rate at 80% (World Bank).
Gender parity of access has been achieved at primary level, whereas in secondary schools, enrolment is now at 54% (World Bank) and disparities between social classes are slowly narrowing.
Schooling is not learning however, and significant challenges remain: The quality and relevance of the curriculum -- specifically at tertiary level; high repetition and drop-out rates -- with an estimated 4.3 million children out of education (UNICEF); and uncompetitive educational outcomes.
Scope for greater access to early years education would be a foundation for accelerated child development. Despite improvements in completion rates, children experience a learning loss of around 40% due to poor quality of education across eleven years of schooling (World Development Report, 2018).
Current resourcing for education is constrained at around 2% of GDP, much lower than comparative countries, whilst much of the educational infrastructure is dated and over-crowded (World Bank).
Focused on the future
With an economic imperative to improve education and the potential for paradigm shifts, we turn away from the industrial scale solutions of the past and turn towards a vision of an education reimagined, firmly rooted in research-backed solutions.
High economic growth can create the infrastructure needed to build a high performing education system, balancing the future needs for employment with the role that education needs to play.
There is an emerging international consensus as to what tomorrow's world is going to look like and how high performing school systems can shape better futures. Three themes dominate: An expectation that all children can learn and be high performers; a focus on future skills, not past knowledge; and a long-term strategy to build the quality of the teaching force.
UNICEF's Every Child Learns advocates high-quality universal basic education as part of its Global Education 2030 Agenda. Emphasis is upon achieving equity of access, improving skills and learning, and protecting children in challenging situations. The UN global strategy seeks to address Bangladesh's current challenges.
There is a need for forward-thinking in education that incentivizes participation and rewards progression, supported by a new cadre of school leaders who have the mandate to build standards and systems capacity.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presents four alternative futures for education and schooling, influenced by the digitalization of learning and changes brought on by Covid. These are: Schooling extended; education outsourced; schools as learning hubs; and learning-as-you-go.
With schooling extended, current structures remain, and participation in formal education expands, supported by greater international collaboration and more personalized learning.
With education outsourced, diverse and flexible arrangements prevail, driven by digital technology.
For schools as learning hubs, whilst the institutions remain, the role changes with greater community engagement, new forms of learning, driven by innovation.
For learn-as-you-go, education is on the move, old distinctions between formal and informal disappear, driven by AI solutions (Back to the Future Education, OECD, 2022).
Education reimagined
The country faces a juxtaposition of high challenge to huge opportunity. Whilst current economic expansion provides a platform for educational improvement, education remains the long-run force behind growth. Education stimulates social mobility and provides individuals with the competencies to contribute meaningfully to economic success.
Education solutions must evolve from a focus on the institutional to a concern for the individual. Playing its part in a fast-changing global world, education needs to have both formal and informal contexts, with a bold reimagination of substance and style: A reevaluation of educational purpose, content and delivery modes.
The short-term imperative is to transform thinking on student achievement into focusing on defined key skills and to upskill a retained teaching force.
First focus is on the research-backed belief that all children are capable of high performance, and it is the role of schools to make this happen systematically. Meta research shows that teacher expectations rank highest in their effect-size on student learning and achievement (Hattie, 2009).
Second is the stress on skills, not knowledge, with creativity, critical thinking and collaboration seen key to economic success. Employers in Bangladesh frequently point to the skills deficit; a recent study showed that 46% of businesses do not get the employees they need (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2023).
Third, we need to invest in professional development and make the teachers we have better -- what is often called “love the one you're with, strategy” through high quality professional learning (Wiliam, 2020).
Achieving impact now
Our objective is to build safe, happy and successful schools, set within high performing and diverse education contexts, to meet the country's evolving needs.
Collaborative approaches to raise education standards are an imperative, and the long-term gain of top-down ambition must be complemented by the short-term impact of bottom-up private-public partnerships.
John Maynard Keyes famously said: "In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if, in tempestuous seasons, they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again." In the current context, it means holding ambitions but achieving impact now.
Private schools have the ability and duty to support public providers, through long-term partnerships.
In the short term, they can do this in three ways: Sharing international standards on safeguarding and making this a statutory duty; widening scholarship opportunities for the most able, regardless of social status; and collaborating on professional learning opportunities to drive teaching standards forward.
My school, Haileybury Bhaluka, believes strongly in raising education standards for all and intends to play its part in safeguarding, scholarships and staff training in other schools.
In building better futures, we move forward together.
Simon O'Grady is the Founding Headmaster of Haileybury Bhaluka, the first premier boarding school in Bangladesh.
