Bangladesh primary schools: the teacher shortage behind disrupted classes
A reporting case study on teacher vacancies in Bangladesh's government primary schools, combining national staffing data, school-level reporting and learning assessments.
What the reporting set out to establish
How do chronic teacher vacancies translate into lost teaching time and weaker classroom support in government primary schools?
How the story was reported
The report moved from national vacancy figures to individual schools in Jamalpur, Cumilla, Gazipur and Faridpur. It compared sanctioned posts with teachers actually in classrooms, examined the legal complications behind headteacher recruitment and set the staffing problem against official learning-assessment data.
Key evidence used
- The education ministry said 36,235 headteacher posts were vacant across 65,567 government primary schools.
- The Directorate of Primary Education's 2024 sector report said 12,935 schools were operating with four or fewer teachers, including 133 with only one teacher.
- School-level interviews documented cancelled classes, teachers covering multiple subjects and acting headteachers combining teaching with administrative work.
What this adds
The staffing numbers become more useful when connected to what happens inside classrooms. The case study preserves that link between administrative vacancy data, regional disparities and the learning conditions experienced by children.
This is a portfolio case study, not a replacement publication of the original article. It adds reporting context and evidence notes while preserving a direct link to The Daily Star version.