Guidlines

Guidelines for Education

Guidelines of Ministry of Education

• Human resource development is at the core of Bangladesh's development efforts and access to quality education is critical to poverty reduction and economic development. The Government is committed to undertaking structural reforms that are expected to bring significant improvements in the education sector. Bangladesh's commitment to education has been clearly stated in its Constitution and development plans with education being given the highest priority in the public sector investments. Education sector allocations are currently about 2.3 percent of GDP and 14 percent of total government expenditure. Maintaining this commitment to the education sector is imperative in order to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• The management of the education system falls under two ministries - the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME, responsible for primary education and mass literacy) and the Ministry of Education (MoE, responsible for secondary, vocational and tertiary education). Overall there are more than 17 million students at the primary level, and over 8.0 million at the secondary level. Enrolments at the tertiary level are relatively small but growing very rapidly.
• Bangladesh has made significant progress, especially in regard to increasing access and gender equity, both at primary and secondary levels. Gross primary enrollment rates rose from 90 percent in the late 1990s to 98 percent in 2003, while a corresponding increase in enrollment rates at the secondary level rise to 44 percent. Gender parity in access to primary and secondary education has also been achieved. These achievements are particularly spectacular when compared to countries in the South Asia region and other countries at similar levels of per-capita income.
• The Government is strongly committed to alleviating the existing problems in respect of management and quality through reforms across the education system. At the primary level, MoPME is supported by a multi-donor group through the Primary Education Development Program II (PEDP II), which aims to strengthen educational access, quality and efficiency.
• In order to address issues at the secondary and higher levels, MoE has developed a medium-term framework for the secondary education sub-sector, focusing on quality improvements, policy measures and specific actions needed to reform the system. The development of this medium-term framework has benefited from an extensive range of consultations and workshops with stakeholders at the central, district, and upazila levels. The main objective of reforms being proposed is to address systemic governance issues aimed at raising the quality and cost-effectiveness of service delivery, and improve equity of access in secondary education.
• MoE is aiming to move towards a devolved system of governance within the current administrative structure. In this system the central government will be responsible for formulating policies, financing, setting quality standards, and monitoring and evaluation etc., while lower levels of government will be responsible for administering the system. MoE is empowering officials at the district and upazila levels to take greater responsibility in monitoring school performance and ensure public disclosure of information (e.g., SSC passing rates, teacher absenteeism, class sizes, etc.) related to school quality.
• To ensure appropriate financial controls, MoE is implementing a Financial Management Reform Program (FMRP). This is intended to increase accountability and transparency in the use of resources

Plans

Major Reforms Undertaken by the Government for Improving Quality of Education

• Introduction of unitrack curriculum in secondary level education from 2006
• School based assessment (SBA) in secondary level education
• Reform of existing examination systems in secondary level education
• Privatization of Textbook Writing and Publication
• Re-organization of Managing Committee/Governing Body of the Non-Government Educational Institutions
• Formation of Oversight Committee for Supervision of Teaching at Classrooms
• Sanction of MPO on the basis of performance of educational institutions
• Strengthening of Teachers' Training
• Delivery of Textbooks to the Students on Time
• Development and Modernization of Secondary, Technical and Madrasha Curricula
• Retirement and Welfare Fund for Non-Government Teachers
• Establishment of 10 Foreign Language Centers
• Distribution of 20000 computers in secondary level educational institutions including Madrashas
• Training of secondary level teachers' in computer applications
• Restructuring of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education
• Restructuring of National Academy for Education Management (NAEM)
• Restructuring of Personnel of Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Jessore, Barisal, Comilla, Sylhet) and NCTB

Strategic Plans

Strategic Plans

Major Initiatives taken by the Ministry

Education Commission 2003 submitted its report in March 2004 and GOB has initiated actions to review and prioritize its 880 recommendations concerning each stream and level of education.
Actually many of the recommendations made by the Education Commission are already in the process of implementation and many are in the pipeline for implementation. Some of the actions are taken in this respect are described below:

• Government has enacted Primary Education (Compulsory) Law in 1990 to achieve the universal primary enrolment by 2005
• More then 98% of secondary schools are non-government. But Government pays 90% of the teacher and staff salary of these institutions
• Bangladesh has sustained increased government allocation in education sector from the 1990s
• Government is currently providing subsidies to create demand for education in favor of the poor and girls
• Government has initiated the decentralization of primary and secondary education management structure
• Government has established an autonomous Nongovernmental Secondary Teachers Registration and Certification Authority in order to recruit qualified and trained teachers in secondary level institutions
• A large project for the improvement of teaching quality at the secondary level institutions is underway
• A new apex body named National Teachers Training Authority by restructuring existing National Academy for Education Management (NAEM) is on card. This proposed institution would train both public and private sector teachers from 2005/06
• Reorganization of National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has also started with the objective to separate functions of the Board into two units, e.g., curriculum and textbook. This would enhance competition in textbook production and publishing and enable Board to concentrate on curriculum development
• A separate entity named Independent Textbook Evaluation Committee (ITEC) has been established for designing transparent criteria under which individual textbook manuscripts will be evaluated
• Privatization of textbook production and publication has already started for grades 6 to 10. Publication of all textbooks at the secondary level will be privatized by 2007
• An Accreditation Council is being established which would function as a watchdog over the private universities in order to monitor the teaching standard of universities

Structure

Education Structure Education in Bangladesh has three major stages-primary, secondary and higher educations. Primary education is a 5-year cycle while secondary education is a 7- year one with three sub-stages: 3 years of junior secondary, 2 years of secondary and 2 years of higher secondary. The entry age for primary is 6 years. The junior, secondary and higher stages are designed for age groups 11-13, 14-15 and 16-17 years. Higher secondary is followed by graduate level education in general, technical, engineering, agriculture, business studies, and medical streams requiring 5-6 years to obtain a Masters degree.

Management

Education Management Education System in Bangladesh is being managed and administered by two Ministries, Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Division in association with the attached Departments and Directorates as well as a number of autonomous bodies.

Education system

Guidelines for Education Human resource development is at the core of Bangladesh's development efforts and access to quality education is critical to poverty reduction and economic development. The Government is committed to undertaking structural reforms that are expected to bring significant improvements in the education sector. Bangladesh's commitment to education has been clearly stated in its Constitution and development plans with education being given the highest priority in the public sector investments. Education sector allocations are currently about 2.3 percent of GDP and 14 percent of total government expenditure. Maintaining this commitment to the education sector is imperative in order to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

About Minstry of Education

Ministry of Education is the apex policy making institution of the Government regarding administration and development of post-primary education sector. Ministry of Education formulates policies and programs for the development of post-primary to higher education including Madrasah, Technical and Vocational education. It also formulates laws, rules and regulations for the management and administration of post-primary education sector and its institutions of the country. There are several attached bodies for supervision and management of formal education in post-primary and secondary schools, colleges, madrasahs, technical schools and colleges, polytechnic institutes, engineering colleges and universities. There are about 35121 post primary secondary schools/colleges/madrasahs and 34 public and 60 private universities.