An education system running without direction

A year-end review, by this daily, lays bare the dire state of our education sector. It has dangerously deteriorated due to teacher protests, police crackdowns, student clashes, textbook delays, arbitrary policy reversals and terrible examination results. However, the chaos all throughout 2025 did not create the education crisis—it exposed it. Decades of neglect of the sector and failure to address fundamental weaknesses were amplified. Also, poor governance and inability to prevent crisis resulted in total disruption of the academic calendar for students in primary schools, colleges and universities, causing millions of students to lose irreplaceable learning time.

Particularly jarring was the state's response to protesting teachers—with batons, water cannons and sound grenades. The teachers were protesting decades of stagnant salaries and allowances as well as institutional disregard. Could this not have been handled through meaningful dialogue instead of the hardline approach? Meanwhile, the SSC and HSC pass rates plunged to their lowest levels in years. Officials attributed this to the absence of "sympathetic marking" long practiced in previous times. But this only confirms what education experts have been warning for long. That inflated grades were hiding serious learning deficits. Sadly, this deficiency was also present in the budget for the sector. Allocation for primary education fell by more than Tk 3,000 crore, with total education spending remaining at a paltry 1.72 percent of GDP. The result of this neglect includes more dropouts, increase in child labour and early marriage and a generation slowly drifting out of the system. It is also surprising that an education reform commission did not materialise as part of the reform agenda for the interim government.

With the national elections scheduled for February 2026, the responsibility of overhauling the ailing education sector will fall on the next elected government that will inherit a system weakened by years of misgovernance. The new government's first task must be to declare education a national priority not as lip service but through significant administrative reforms and financial commitment. Teachers' grievances must be resolved through sustainable negotiation. The learning crisis at the foundational level must be addressed. Reforms should be based on honest assessments and include strategies to upgrade reading, writing and numeracy at the primary level. Along with academic teaching, students must be taught values—honesty, empathy and appreciation of diversity. Trust and respect must be restored between teachers and students. Public spending on education must rise according to international benchmarks, especially for primary education. Besides, transparency in how these funds are spent must be maintained.

The next government must understand that education reform can only be possible with the input of all stakeholders—teachers, students, parents and experts. Undoubtedly, how well we can improve the quality and accessibility of education will determine how equipped our young people will be to avail high skill jobs, become successful entrepreneurs and professionals as well as how effective they will be as future leaders.