Education system loss could turn demographic dividend into burden: Milon
Education must receive the highest priority, with a focus not only on infrastructure but also on quality, he says.
A large number of students are dropping out at different stages of the education system, creating an "education system loss" that could eventually turn Bangladesh's demographic dividend into a burden, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon said today (11 August).
Speaking at a session of a three-day conference on a five-year strategic framework for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Dhaka, he said many students are lost after primary, secondary and higher secondary education before reaching university.
"System loss in the power sector causes economic losses, but system loss in education is more dangerous for the nation," he said, stressing the need to turn the country's large population into skilled human resources.
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Milon said education must receive the highest priority, with focus not only on infrastructure but also on quality, teacher recruitment, dropout prevention, curriculum reform, research and stronger industry-academia links.
Education allocation rises to Tk1.36 lakh crore
The minister said education's allocation has risen from Tk87,000 crore to Tk1.36 lakh crore in the current budget, equivalent to a net 2% of GDP. However, he warned that increasing allocation alone would not yield results unless the additional funds were used properly.
Bangladesh's young population could become a major competitive advantage if properly skilled, he said. But many educated Bangladeshis are doing low-skilled jobs abroad, which he described as a major failure of the education system.
Around 15 million Bangladeshis are working abroad, while remittances are the "bloodline" of the economy, Milon said. He called for greater emphasis on skills development and foreign languages, including Japanese and Mandarin alongside English, to increase the scope for skilled overseas employment.
New curriculum planned for 2028
Milon said the full curriculum could not be changed this year, although it had already been revised and four new textbooks introduced. A new curriculum is planned from 2028.
He said new programmes are being introduced to promote enjoyable and project-based learning, sports, and measures against student addiction and dropouts.
Bangladesh currently has 57 public and 116 private universities. Milon said improving higher education quality, employment-oriented education, research and industry-academia links was more important than simply increasing the number of universities.
77,000 teaching posts vacant
Teacher shortages remain a major challenge, with around 38,000 government primary schools lacking headteachers and nearly 77,000 teaching posts vacant in schools and colleges.
"An educational institution cannot function effectively without teachers," Milon said, citing lawsuits and other complications as obstacles to recruitment.
He also said the government had allocated funds to address teachers' retirement benefit delays from 2021 to 2026, with an initiative to provide retirement benefits to around 75,000 teachers on 15 August. Planning State Minister Junaid Saki also spoke at the session.
