Education is the backbone of a nation. Despite Bangladesh has overcome various challenges in the education system, including enrollment and gender dissimilarity, major improvements are still needed to fulfill the international standard. Lack of a unified curriculum as well as other challenges such as the quality of teachers, funding, political issues, other educational facilities have been vital issues for the development of education system of Bangladesh.The Bangladesh education system fully complies with the standard of the UN’s Education For All (EFA).
Current education system of Bangladesh has three major stages primary Level (Class 1–8), secondary Level (Class 9–12) and tertiary level. Out of the six EFA goals it seems progress in enrollment and gender parity at the primary level. But unfortunately, on the other four goals, there has not been reported the same progress. According to the EFA (Education For All) 2015 national review, the country achieved a close universal enrollment at the primary level. Gender equality in enrollment at the primary and secondary levels is another accomplishment of the last two decades. Despite these achievements, significant gender and urban-rural disparities in adult literacy persist (BBS 2013) in conjunction with dropping out before completing primary school.
The goal of having a pre-primary class meets only 50 percent of preschool children receiving some form of pre-primary education in 2012. An operational framework must be developed for fulfilling the first goal of EFA.Low enrollment and high dropout at the secondary level results in a lower percentage of completing the secondary school certificate. Only around 11 percent of out-of-school youth participate in formal or non-formal work-related training, with informal apprenticeship counting for more than half, which reports the lack of accomplishment of a third goal of EFA.The fourth goal of EFA is increasing adult Literacy. 2010 Literacy Survey confirms Adult literacy rate reached 59.8% in 2010. A recently approved literacy project also reports the increasing adult literacy.
The last goal of EFA is improving quality of education. Lack of uniformity in the curriculum followed by educational institutions, short average pupil-teacher ratio, low qualified teacher and teaching method, the large class size and small learning time combine to limit effective contact hours and undermine learning achievement of students etc. are the reported issues. The inadequate funding and resources also create the hindrance larger. A broader social concern has also been raised to link up the education with practical skill and capacities in relation to employment. Political instability also increases the hindrance in the path of successful development. In brief, no country can reach their targeted educational without maintaining international standards. To meet the international standard of education, achieving all the goals of EFA is important.
Necessary initiatives with a unified educational framework must be developed.