Dr M. Niaz Asadullah
Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka
(This column was published as an opinion-analysis piece in the Prothom Alo on 11th June 2026. By special nomination of the Editor-in-Chief and with the author’s permission, the column is republished in this bulletin)
Recently, a statement by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education on social media has drawn attention. Referring to a dream of the Honourable Prime Minister, he pledged that the current government wants to create an education system where students from all corners of the globe will come to Bangladesh to study and learn. A few days later, at another event, the education minister claimed that Bangladesh would soon become one of the world’s finest “education hubs”.
In reality, and judging by our global indices of education and labour skills, these statements are, on the one hand, full of exaggeration and complacency; on the other, this reformist ambition from the political leadership to resolve the current stalemate, crisis and despair in the education sector also sparks a glimmer of hope in the minds of education enthusiasts. However, whilst applauding this visionary thinking from the highest strata of leadership, the realisation of this dream requires the spontaneous
participation of citizens and state patronage for local-level educational initiatives and entrepreneurs.
Past legacy of innovation versus present reality
Bangladesh has a long and glorious tradition of providing low-cost, innovative solutions
to overcome barriers to accessing health and education services. BRAC’s “One Teacher, One Classroom” model or the public sector’s ‘Reaching Out of School Children’ project once brought the light of education to low-income families in remote areas. This informal primary education model by BRAC was later adopted in many countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. Similarly, our global success in preventing diarrhea through oral rehydration solution is globally recognised.
However, the challenges in today’s Bangladeshi education sector are completely different from those of the 1990s. While it is now possible to get most children into school, the main challenge is ensuring their actual learning. To overcome the education budget deficit, building on past innovative achievements, what we now need is to address “learning poverty”. To eradicate it, we need entirely new models and contemporary thinking. The encouraging news is that, in recent times, several innovative education-related projects have been scaled up through the initiatives of the private sector and NGOs. But the unfortunate reality is that these technological and strategic educational innovations have yet to be incorporated into the government’s mainstream education projects.
Before rolling out any model nationwide, we must think deeply, is the economics of education here benefiting the students, or creating a shame? History tells us that the world goes to learn from a country only when that country has its own original, effective and cost-effective innovations or proposals.
International recognition for a local initiative
In February this year, I was at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand for a research project. There, I met a young Bangladeshi education entrepreneur. He brought just ten chemistry teachers from Bangladesh to Bangkok, selected through training, to participate in an international conference on chemistry.
These teachers exchange experiences with and take part in specialised training with science, technology, engineering and mathematics educators from various countries, including South Asia. Behind such a large-scale international arrangement was the joint effort of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Department of Chemical Engineering and an EdTech company founded by those young entrepreneurs. I learnt, incidentally, that it is not possible to provide all schools in our country with the necessary laboratory facilities. Furthermore, ensuring the safe use of various materials for chemical experiments is also difficult. To overcome these limitations, the group of young people, in collaboration with the Chemical Society of Thailand, is running a pilot training project in Bangladesh called “Small-Scale Chemistry”. A team of expert trainers from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India has already trained 100 selected teachers in Bangladesh.
I am quite heartened to see such excellent and internationally standard training completed without any large-budget, ambitious government project. What is even more remarkable is that this training was organised at the Primary Teacher Training Institute (PTI) in Dhaka.
There is a particular reason for citing this example of secondary education in the context of primary education. I learnt from the young entrepreneur that before starting the initiative, they had worked with the Bangladesh Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to train mathematics teachers. These young people have visited hundreds of primary schools in Bangladesh at the grassroots level and spoken directly with over a thousand primary school teachers.
The importance of structural trust and localisation deeply resonated with me. Upon returning home, I spoke with several other successful local education entrepreneurs, which brought about a significant shift in my thinking. In my research, I discovered that another homegrown initiative in science education, much like the one in mathematics, is also quite promising.
The initiative began with the intention of making science easy, fun, and hands-on for children, moving beyond the dry theory of textbooks. To bring countless fascinating scientific experiments within their reach, they developed several science kits. Meanwhile, over a hundred thousand kit boxes have been sold in the Bangladeshi market, which sounded incredible to me at first. This suggests that these local
innovations in Bangladesh’s education sector hold the potential to capture the world’s attention.
So, when the minister in charge of primary education says that the world will come to learn from Bangladesh, although it may sound far-fetched at first, it generates an optimism. But this dream will only be realised when we give due importance to local innovations at the state level and try to understand what role these internationally recognised home-grown initiatives can play in the development of our national education.
However, it is important to bear a few things in mind. In the context of education in Bangladesh, the mention of “localised innovation” often leads to the creation of various bureaucratic, fanciful projects that are of no use to students or teachers on the ground. Of course, without a proper system for evaluating projects, it is difficult to determine which are successful and which are not.
The lack of transparent evaluation of any project against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in recent years has led to a flawed perception of educational development, much like the blind man feeling an elephant. In recent years, due to the weaknesses in the state education system, many parents have been seeking alternatives to the national curriculum. This crisis of confidence in the state education system has primarily arisen from overall management inefficiencies. A lack of coordination, from curriculum development to project implementation, has always cast doubt on the achievement of its
objectives. Yet, in any modern global discussion on education, “localisation” is an extremely popular and effective concept.
Currently, around twenty million students in Bangladesh are studying in primary schools. According to a UNICEF report, our position in South Asia in terms of teacher competence is not satisfactory. According to the National School Assessment from 2015 to 2022, half of primary school pupils cannot read the books for their own grade, and two-thirds are unable to perform basic counting in mathematics. Yet, numerous costly training programmes have been organised at the government level over various periods to address the language and maths deficiencies of primary school pupils. However, the extent to which the goals and objectives of these training programmes have been achieved has always remained a matter of question.
The path to redemption and farsighted leadership
Let us return to that conversation in Bangkok. The young entrepreneur had informed me that, keeping global innovation opportunities in mind, they had developed learning materials for mathematics tailored to the local context, which are now acclaimed on the world stage.
The reason I mention this again is that our new generation can provide the leadership for the fundamental changes this state’s education system requires, drawing on their own talent. But the question is, to what extent have we made our state policies conducive to indigenous innovation?
I feel it is important to mention another educational initiative in this context. I was introduced to the entrepreneur not long ago. However, upon speaking with them, I realised that this initiative is also quite promising in these times of educational stagnation and crisis. A project from a primary education centre began its journey in 2016 and has since evolved into a large educational ecosystem. I had never come
across such a product-based initiative for pre-primary and primary school pupils operating on a fully privatised model. They are committed to enhancing children’s imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills through storybooks, toys, dolls, and after-school creative workshops. The programme even places an emphasis on developing the emotional intelligence and moral values of pre-primary children.
Its scope is extensive, from providing thousands of pupils with the opportunity to read books by setting up low-cost school libraries to organising teacher and parent training programmes in various districts of the country. I eagerly asked the entrepreneur whether these initiatives had been carried out in collaboration with the government. He informed me that, apart from receiving national recognition, he has not yet been involved in any such government initiative.
From what I gathered, the government’s protracted processes and bureaucratic complexities discourage our innovative entrepreneurs from collaborating with state institutions. The government must work more proactively to bridge these gaps. It must be borne in mind that the mindset of education entrepreneurs is forged in the dream of nation-building. Therefore, to harness their work for the national interest, both the
dynamism and sincerity of the Ministry of Education are essential.
If we look to our neighbouring countries, we see that India is extensively encouraging homegrown edtech and local innovation to overcome its own educational crisis. Malaysia and Vietnam have tailored their education systems to their own socio-economic needs and are transforming classrooms by harnessing local innovation. The caliber of our teachers, classroom capacity, and experience repeatedly remind us that we cannot solve our education problems by simply adopting Western model’s wholesale. Furthermore, the lack of proper evaluation during the pilot phase of major government-backed projects reminds us that we must think deeply before rolling out any model nationwide, whether the economics of education benefit students or create a smokescreen.
To fundamentally reform the country’s primary education, we must understand global trends, and the state must also engage in an open dialogue with our homegrown, innovative education entrepreneurs. The solutions of those working towards this quality transformation of the nation’s education must be evaluated by the state.
History tells us that the world only goes to learn from a country when that nation has its own fundamental, effective and affordable innovations or proposals. Therefore, if we can reduce bureaucratic reliance and disseminate homegrown innovations with state patronage to improve the quality of Bangladesh’s education system, only then will the world come to learn from Bangladesh. And for that noble goal to be achieved, what is most needed right now is visionary political leadership and the cultivation of an innovative mindset.
