Keep politics out of school textbooks

Few aspects shape a nation’s future as profoundly as what it teaches its children. That is why Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon’s pledge to revise textbooks with the help of “high-quality experts,” and without any party consideration, carries particular significance. It is a welcome declaration. But it also raises an important question: can Bangladesh finally reform its school curriculum without political interference and majoritarian or far-right pressures?

If we are honest with ourselves, we must acknowledge that our education system has undergone repeated changes and experiments over the past two decades. With nearly every change of government, the curriculum has been revisited—not always out of pedagogical necessity, but often to serve ideological or partisan priorities. The content of schoolbooks, particularly in history and literature, has been revised, reframed and, at times, rewritten. The result has been confusion, inconsistency, and generations of students growing up exposed to shifting narratives and experimental systems.

Both the Awami League and the BNP, during their respective past tenures, revised the content of school textbooks. Those changes often drew criticism from educationists and public intellectuals of the time. In 2017, the Awami League government introduced sweeping textbook revisions, removing essays and poems by progressive writers. Critics argued that those revisions were made to accommodate the demands of Hefajat-e Islam. Whether viewed as compromise or concession, the move was widely perceived as political rather than pedagogical. There was also criticism that history books placed overwhelming emphasis on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s role in the 1971 Liberation War, with comparatively limited mention of other key figures.

Five years later, in 2022, the Awami League government rolled out a new curriculum up to the secondary level. It promised a shift from rote learning to competency-based education, emphasising creativity and critical thinking. The reforms included removing exams for up to Class 3, scrapping public exams before secondary school, and abolishing the division of students into science, humanities, and business studies streams in Classes 9 and 10. Introduced in phases, the initiative was bold and ambitious on paper. Yet its rollout was rushed. Teacher training was insufficient, assessment methods were unclear, and many schools struggled to adapt. Confusion reigned in many classrooms, while parents voiced concern. This new curriculum, however, could not survive the political upheaval of 2024.

Following the student-led mass uprising that led to the fall of the Awami League government, the interim administration under Dr Muhammad Yunus declared the curriculum impractical and unimplementable, initiating yet another overhaul. Decisions were made to revise textbooks at all levels. The three academic streams were reinstated, and the evaluation system reverted to the framework of the National Curriculum 2012. Symbolic changes accompanied structural ones. The message from former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was removed from the back covers of most textbooks and replaced with graffiti created during the July-August 2024 movement. Content related to the student-led July uprising and the mass uprising of 1990 was incorporated into secondary-level textbooks, alongside references to the contributions of national leaders like Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Tajuddin Ahmad, and late president Ziaur Rahman. At the same time, some historical content, including Bangabandhu’s March 7 speech, was removed from most textbooks.

Thus, students were once again compelled to adjust to new textbooks, revised syllabi, and altered assessment systems. Within little more than a decade, learners have experienced multiple structural shifts in how they are taught and evaluated. Even more troubling is the effect on their historical understanding: when textbook narratives change with political tides, students are left with fragmented—and sometimes contradictory—accounts of their own past.

The new government now has an opportunity to break this cycle. Its promise to keep party considerations out of curriculum reform must be honoured not merely in rhetoric, but in institutional practice. That requires resisting the temptation to erase, elevate, or reinterpret history to suit contemporary political narratives. A genuinely independent curriculum development process demands broad consultation with educators, researchers, and practitioners. Reforms should be carefully piloted, rigorously evaluated, and implemented gradually. The BNP government had promised in its 2026 election manifesto to form an “Education Reform Commission” for overall quality improvement, with the primary goal of modernising the curriculum. We hope that it will follow through with that pledge and that the commission will function truly independently.

In this regard, a fundamental question that needs to be considered is: what kind of curriculum does Bangladesh need in 2026 and beyond? The world our children are entering is being shaped by rapid technological advancement, artificial intelligence, global competition, and shifting labour markets. A modern curriculum must prioritise skills—critical thinking, problem-solving, digital literacy, and communication—over rote memorisation. And once developed, it must be supported by rigorous teacher training and adequate resources.

Bangladesh has made notable progress in expanding access to education. Enrolment rates have risen, gender parity has improved, and textbook distribution—the timing of which has often been unreliable at the start of the academic year—has been reassuring for students and guardians. The next frontier is quality, which cannot be achieved in an environment of perpetual revision. The education minister’s assurance that party considerations will not shape upcoming reforms is encouraging. But the real test lies in building structures that ensure transparency, professionalism, and continuity. If this government truly seeks to avoid repeating past mistakes, it must commit to a depoliticised, forward-looking, and stable education framework. Our children deserve an education system that prepares them for the future, not one that mirrors the fluctuations of political power.

Wasim Bin Habib is planning editor at The Daily Star.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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