Education priorities

BHP Director John Richards along with colleagues Manzoor Ahmed and Shahidul Islam recently published an op-ed on education reforms in Bangladesh’s leading English-language newspaper. They recommend urgent and short-term actions to return to a “new normal” with effective consultation processes to engage students, families and teachers. In the medium-term, they propose, “Teachers' professionalism and performance are the pivot of change in education.” They also propose increased education budgets; meaningful assessment of student learning; decentralized management, and involvement of industry experts to ensure graduates have the right skills. This is an ambitious agenda and the authors conclude, “The interim government is not expected to complete all the needed reforms. But if it realizes at least some of the key reforms and charts the way ahead for others, it will have done justice to the sacrifices of students and citizens during the July-August movement.” You can read about BHP support for primary education in our earlier blog posts.

IUBAT graduate at RCOG Congress

IUBAT College of Nursing graduate and faculty member Mohammed Ali attended the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists World Congress in October 2024, along with 2000 other participants from over 70 countries. He presented a poster on decision-making for C-section in Bangladesh. Ali writes, “I had the opportunity to meet people from many places, who liked my e-poster and the topic that I am researching. I was also able develop professional networks with people involved with Bangladesh Obstetrician and Gynecologists Society and look forward to working with them in the future. My supervisor from Oxford University was there as well and glad to find a local examiner for my thesis defense. Overall, it was a great conference with so many innovative research papers on the theme of women's and reproductive health. I found it very useful.”

The importance of learning assessment

BHP Director John Richards has been working with Bangladeshi colleagues proposing reforms to the country’s education system. Following joint publication of a textbook, “Political Economy of Education in South Asia”, John contributed to a recent essay in a prominent Dhaka newspaper. The essay covers all aspects of an agenda for education reform aimed at building an equitable, inclusive and quality education system for all.

Among many other recommendations, Dr. Manzoor Ahmed, the lead author, writes: “One of the priorities should be a broad assessment of primary-level students' ability to read and do basic arithmetic, and actions based on the assessment to reach these targets.” This has been a major focus of BHP expectations for the primary school that we support through the Oasis for Posterity NGO. You can read about the latest assessment and follow-up actions in earlier editions of this blog.