In some respects, unimpressive outcomes have not held back Bangladesh. The economy has been growing at an annual rate of 6% for the past decade, reaching 8% before the pandemic. The two main drivers of growth, the garment industry and remittances from overseas Bangladeshi workers, have boomed. But that is because labour is plentiful and cheap, not because it is skilled. Bangladeshi labourers in the Gulf often earn less than their Indian brethren. Garment workers in Dhaka, the capital, toil for lower wages than rivals in China.
The new curriculum, which comes after years of consultation, including with employers and workers, is designed to address the mismatch between education and the skills required in the economy, says Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, the deputy minister for education. A choice of two vocational subjects from such options as woodwork, graphic design, car mechanics, child care and plumbing will be mandatory for high-schoolers. The government also plans to open more technical universities.
Though many education experts are in favour of the change, some worry parts of it amount to trying to run before learning to walk. How can coding be taught well when “we cannot ensure numeracy and literacy”, asks Niaz Asadullah, an economist who focuses on education inequality at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. Moreover, he says, tens of thousands of madrasas, which are unaffected by the changes, have no government oversight and teach little beyond the Koran.
Nor does changing the curriculum solve many of the other problems underlying Bangladesh’s poor learning outcomes, says Mr Asadullah. Teachers are poorly paid, inadequately trained and too few in number. Bangladesh has among the largest class sizes in the region, with one teacher to 45 pupils in secondary school.
Public funds flow less easily. At 2.1% of gdp, Bangladesh spends less on education than any other South Asian country, and falls well short of the 4-6% recommended by unesco, the un body responsible for education among other things. Mr Chowdhury says that a chunk of education spending comes from different ministries, and so is unaccounted for in this figure.
As a result of all this, many of the curriculum changes introduced over the past decade are yet to be implemented. The recently announced reforms are “on the positive trend”, says Mr Rahman. But only if they actually happen.■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Levelling up”