Education in 2025: A year of strikes, setbacks and disruptions

In a Narsingdi village, Ahmed Mia faces a paradox common to millions of Bangladeshi parents. His daughter, Rafia, has completed the second grade at the local government primary school, yet she struggles to read Bangla.

"Nearly 90 percent of students here pass, but many cannot properly read," observes Ahmed from Bakharnagar.

In the neighbouring village of Satpara, Sonia Akter worries that the emptiness of the classrooms will soon translate into crowded local factories and marriage registries. "If school closures continue, boys could be drawn into crime, and early marriages may increase," she says.

Their anxieties are well-founded. For Bangladesh's education sector, 2025 was a year of disruptions, signifying major flaws in governance. From the primary level to the universities, the academic calendar was shredded by prolonged teacher agitation, government crackdowns, and indecisions on curriculum policies.

The troubles began in January and escalated swiftly. Primary school teachers, demanding salary upgrades, attempted to march towards Shahbagh intersection from the Central Shaheed Minar, only to be blocked by police. By May, the unrest had hardened into a nationwide strike affecting all 65,567 government primary schools. Over 380,000 teachers walked out, and one crore students were locked out of schools. The government's eventual offer to upgrade assistant teachers was rejected, leading to a tenuous truce that barely lasted the summer.

The discord was not limited to primary education. In October, teachers from MPO-enlisted institutions (private schools that receive state subsidies) occupied the streets near the National Press Club. Their demand was modest: a house rent allowance of 20 percent of their basic salary, replacing a flat rate of Tk 1,500 that remained frozen for years.

The government's response was aggressive: police used water cannons, sound grenades, and batons. More than 100 teachers were injured. A similar scene played out in November with primary teachers.

"Investment in teachers has been minimal for a long time," said Rasheda K Choudhury, the executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).

"When basic financial demands are ignored, protests become inevitable," said Rasheda, also former adviser to a caretaker government.

She pointed out a grim double standard: while other interest groups saw demands met peacefully, teachers were beaten in the streets.

If the streets were chaotic, the classrooms were in a state of confusion. The year began with a textbook fiasco -- the National Curriculum and Textbook Board failed to distribute books on time -- and then saw the government surrender to vested groups over recruitment of music and physical education teachers.

In August, the government moved to appoint these teachers in government primary schools. But three months later, the plan was scrapped following pressure from Islamist groups, including Hefazat-e-Islam. The retreat was described by Rasheda as "capitulation," warning that removal of holistic learning sends "conflicting signals" in a state that ostensibly promotes culture.

The most damning verdict on the system, however, came from the examination papers of school students. The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) pass rate plummeted to 58.83 percent, the lowest in two decades. The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) pass rate fared little better, hitting a 16-year low.

Officials blamed the removal of "sympathetic marking" -- a euphemism for grade inflation -- for this year's poor show. Rasheda argues this is merely a "warning, not a shock," exposing the "real picture" of learning gaps that have widened during years of neglect.

The apathy toward the sector was also evident in the budget, which saw the allocation for primary education fall by over Tk 3,000 crore in FY2025-26. The budget of 95,644 crore accounts for 1.72 percent of the country's GDP.

But the human cost of this chaotic year is not reflected in the budget but in the tragedy of July 21, when an Air Force training jet crashed into a school in Uttara, killing 36 people, including students and teachers. It is also reflected in institutional failures affecting children like Rafia in Narsingdi, who are "gradually moving out of the system," as Rasheda warns.

This correspondent tried to reach Education Adviser Prof CR Abrar via his mobile phone and WhatsApp over the last few days but he did not respond to calls or messages.

In a year overshadowed by turmoil, one faint spark of democratic practice flickered. After decades of suspension, student union elections returned to four major public universities, including Dhaka and Jahangirnagar.

The polls were peaceful, a rarity in Bangladesh, and the results tilted heavily towards candidates backed by Islami Chhatra Shibir. While these elections reopened long-closed spaces for debate, they stood in stark contrast to the pressure-driven decisions such as arbitrary cancellation of exams, and harassment of teachers which Rasheda describes as a failure to "build a culture of listening to dissent".

For a country that aspires to middle-income status, the lesson of 2025 is stark. Unless the government learns to govern its schools, the country's demographic dividend risks becoming a demographic disaster.