Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
How Education Links to Economic Growth: A Qualitative
Analysis in the Context of Bangladesh
Tahsina Akbar and Ahmed Ameya Prapan
‘How Education Links to Economic Growth: Analysis in the Context of Bangladesh’ is an
attempt to explain how education and economic growth affect each other. The qualitative
research used Key Informant Interview to assess the relation between quality of education and
economic growth. It inspected the gaps and tried to find solutions for the prevailing obstacles
to quality education in Bangladesh. The qualitative nature of the research brought several
hidden issues that are not always reflected through quantitative analysis only. The research
highlighted several underlying causes of failure in ensuring quality education in Bangladesh,
such as, lack of subject specific training for teachers, below average class hours, lack of
incentive etc. The research was also an effort to test the earlier analysis of causal relationship
between education and economic growth and the results validate the previous findings.
Keywords: Economic growth, Education, Quality, Bangladesh, Qualitative Research.
1. Introduction
Today education is not merely a privilege; it is considered as a human right. It has been
acknowledged by Reference [1] that education is necessary to ensure all other human rights.
Thus, Investment in education is not only a good investment rather it is a smart investment
[2]. Education induces human capital through improving productivity. It not only enhances the
capacity of the person being educated, it has more multidimensional and long-term effect on
growth of the economy of a nation [3]. In today’s world the run is to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and Bangladesh has set an example by realizing several goals
ahead of time [4]-[5]. It has been agreed by the policy makers around the world that no other
MDG goals can be met without educating the mass population [4]. In the last four decades
Bangladesh has made progress both in terms of economic growth and education [6].
Bangladesh has experienced a steady upward economic growth after independence [7]. In
terms of education, the government has taken some key policies to encourage people to send
their children to school. Programs such as, access to education, free primary education to all,
scholarship and stipend have brought successful results [8]. Access to education has
increased significantly in the primary level. More importantly, access to female education has
been revolutionary to improve women empowerment [9]. Investment in education creates a
vicious cycle of benefit generation that is spread through time. Educated mothers generates
educated children [10] and build a healthier future labor force by spending more on their
children’s education, health and nutrition [11], [12]. Thus it brings a positive impact on
economic growth.
_________________________________________________________________________
Tahsina Akbar, Individual Researcher, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Ahmed Ameya Prapan, Lecturer, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
Moreover, the debate is not only on the issue that whether to invest in education or not, the debate is also on whether to
invest in education to increase quantity (i.e. increasing enrolment rate, average years of schooling, reducing drop-out rates
etc) or to improve quality of education. The debate has arisen because the investment in schooling has not properly been
reflected on growth as predicted by the researchers and theorists [13].
To the best of my knowledge there is not enough research conducted on Bangladesh's perspective to assess the link between
education and economic growth from qualitative aspect by using the key informant method used in this research. Finally,
based on the results few suggestions for policy improvements were made.
1.2 Methodology
The research followed key informant interview tool to conduct a qualitative research to search for the underlying issues
hindering the dissemination of quality education in Bangladesh. The key informants included government employees,
development practitioners, professors and teachers. The informants were chosen to capture distinct perspective from coming
from different occupational backgrounds.
The sample size consisted of fifteen respondents. The key informants were of both sexes. As the research focuses on relation
between quality of education and economic growth, the key informants were selected from education sector and economic
sector of Bangladesh. The sample included five resource personnel form Ministry who work as experts, practitioners and
policy formulators. There were three economists and one research analyst working in the field of economics from
international donor agency. There was three education policy experts from Education Ministry and international donor
agency. A University professor, school Headmaster and two school teache
rs were also interviewed to get a more pragmatic idea from the main stakeholders.
Each key informant was interviewed in their office for an hour on average. The recorded interviews were used to prepare
manuscripts that were later analyzed and transformed in to research findings. Informants were tagged with an identification
number that indicated site, age, gender and designation. Transcripts were thematically coded (according to the research
questions and themes that emerged in discussions). After demographic sorts, analysts summarized themes and, where
appropriate Microsoft Excel was used to assess numeric trends.
2. Literature Review
The debate on education and economic growth goes far back. The relation has been analyzed from numerous aspects by
different researchers. The understanding would be incomplete without acknowledging previous research and findings by
other researchers.
Reference [14] was one of the early researchers who tried to find out the importance of education and in his book ‘The
Wealth of Nations’ he advocated that education improves skills and abilities that he distinguished as a category of fixed
capital. However, in the first three decades of UN development, education was not in focus [15]. UN principally focused
on economic transformation and industrialization. Millennium Development Goals (MDG) was announced in the
Millennium Summit in 2000 and for the first time education became one core area of development [16]. Thus, MDG was
a big shift from economic growth oriented development to poverty reduction and human well-being [17].
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
In the last half of the twentieth century, Reference [18] tried to inspect the causes of growth and he discovered how earnings
increased with education level and contributed to national income. Reference [18] also observed the relation between
education and growth from the other way around and they rather tried to find out the impact on economic growth in absence
of education. Their research showed how lack of education works as an obstacle to use new technology, thus slowing down
growth of a nation. However, sometimes the positive effects of education are indirect. Such as education helps to decrease
child death and a better health improves labor productivity; which results into increase in household income and thus
growth[19]. Moreover, another principle operator of development is market. Market pushes development when the
prerequisites, such as, infrastructure and human capital are ensured. Reference [ibid] advocated for proper market
mechanism, as the absence of it may leave out a large part of the world away from growth. He also highlighted Bangladesh’s
outstanding performance in reducing fertility rate which will increase household income and create opportunity for more
children to attend school.
There has been a long debate on whether education works as a force to increase economic growth or economic growth
pushes education system forward. However, a well-designed education system both helps the economy to grow and can be
financed by economic development [20].Reference [21] conducted their research on economic development policies of U.S
and they believe there is necessity for a radical transformation of policies related to economic development. According to
them the base of economic development can be found through improved fiscal practice, infrastructural development and
quality education system. Reference [ibid] portrayed development as a transformation of society from traditional to modern
approach. According to him economic development needs the society to make its journey from traditional approach in
health, education and production to a more modern approach. Reference [22] observed through their research that education
yields additional indirect benefit to growth of a country. On the other hand, Reference [23] agreed that education works as
a good means of allowing countries to adapt to new technology but they could not conclude that education increases GDP
growth.
South and East Asia made an exemplary success to meet the goal of Universal Primary Education [24]. However, it became
a concern to the researchers when the success of high enrollment rate did not reflect on economic growth as expected. The
researchers then analyzed the causes behind this failure and realized that only increasing enrollment is not enough. Children
need to be provided quality education. Only then the positive effect of education will be translated into economic growth.
Quality is an abstract phenomenon, thus difficult to define due to its multidimensional context, including political, cultural
and economic context. Several definition of quality education exists; however, provided a Universal definition to be
followed. Furthermore, the discussion on quality of education is sometimes shaped by global and international influence
[25]. The national and local context of different countries also impacts the different perspective toward quality of education.
Moreover, the meaning of quality of education also depends on its stakeholders and how they perceive it. It is observed that
the meaning often differs to different stakeholders [ibid]. The stakeholders may evaluate the education system in terms of
the end goal they decide for their children and their community to achieve [26]with time society changes, so does the need
of education. It is important that the definition of quality education may evolve with time and the current need in that
context [27]the quality of the children’s lives decides the performance in receiving education. So it is very important to
provide health, nutrition, family support and quality learning environment (ibid). Along with ensuring these prerequisites,
the teacher also needs to be trained for their professional development. The Mombassa School Improvement Project, a
program in Kenya, showed that internal and external training and workshops enable the teachers to introduce child-centered
teaching methods and provide quality education to the students [28]. Reference [29]researched to find the relation between
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
quality of education and economic growth for a long period and updated his research results using new data periodically.
His research represented how growth of economy, its ability to adapt to new innovations and increase in productivity is
entangled with quality of education provided to the labor force. He researched the relation between both quantity of
education and quality of education with economic growth and came to conclusion that it is the quality of education that
makes the difference without denying the importance of quantity of education indicators.
Education is seen as a tool to reduce poverty. Bangladesh holds the largest primary education system in the world. Even
after making strides in terms of reaching MDG goals to ensure Universal Primary Education and gender parity in education,
its main concern remains to improve the poor quality of education. However, it is observed over the years that the results
of education could not impact the goal to reduce poverty as expected [30]. A critical assessment of future actions as post2015 development agenda by [31] confirms that success has been achieved in terms of school enrollment but at the expense
of quality of education. In case of gender parity, although it has been achieved in primary education level in South Asia,
the scenario is completely opposite in tertiary education level. Bangladesh has pledged to achieve Education for All (EFA)
goals by providing quality education to everyone. Furthermore, Bangladesh government is obliged to provide education to
all by constitution [32]. Bangladesh is failing to provide quality education to the children.
The success of the education system is sheer reflection of its teachers. If the teachers are not good they cannot provide
quality education. To achieve universal primary education by 2015, Bangladesh needs to recruit additional 1.6 million
teachers. The sixth goal of EFA agenda is improving all aspects of quality education. According to 2011 data, at the primary
education level the student- teacher ratio exceeded 40:1 in 26 of the 162 countries. In Bangladesh the student- teacher ratio
is 49:1. It is an alarming reality that less than 75% of primary school teachers have any training according to national
standards in almost one-third countries with data. Research shows teachers who perform better are more productive when
they are supported. Thus, utilizing their full potential is the key to ensuring quality education in schools (ibid). Reference
[33] proved that quality of education matters. He showed higher primary and secondary student teacher ratios in 1960s had
significant negative co-efficient.
It has been well proven by the researchers that quality education is important for all. Therefore, it is imperative to
quality education for all. First, it is necessary to bring the children to schools. Furthermore, to translate the benefit of
education into a positive impact on economic growth, quality education is compulsory. There is no scope for compromise
with quality of education under any circumstances.
3. Findings
3.1 Education brings Multidimensional and Long-term Impact
Education yields opportunity and benefit in various magnitudes. The impacts of education can be divided in three major
aspects. Firstly, education is the basic tool to produce skilled labor. It is the instrument to create human capital through
disseminating knowledge and skill. As knowledge and skill of the labor force directly affect their efficiency, a
moreproductive nation is generated.Thus, productivity promotes growth of a nation. Secondly, education enables a nation
to absorb new technology. Today's world is technology driven. No nation can compete with the rest of the world without
endorsing technology in day to day life. However, technology is beneficial only when we know how to make use of it.
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
Technology and the digital world has brought information to our door steps. But to exploit the benefit of this opportunity
people must have minimum education to decrypt the information into a usable form. Finally, education encourages
innovation. To compete with the fast moving world, the nations need to be innovative and creative in terms of technology,
methods of production, distribution and communication. An educated nation produces more innovative techniques
compared to a less educated nation.
3.2 Ensuring both Quantity & Quality of Education
Successful implementation of quality education has to be ensured through two important channels. First, is to ensure access
to education for the children and keep them in school. Next, to provide good quality education to all children. The primary
focus is always on increasing the quantitative indicators of education. Such as, enrollment rate, drop- out rate, attendance
etc. The quantitative aspect has been found to be more popular as it is easier to measure in terms of numbers. In addition,
the improvement and success of the initiatives taken by the Government are more are visible. However, quality education
is essential. The main objective of the government to build an educated nation is to produce highly skilled labor force for
better development. However, high enrollment rate and access to education does not ensure quality education. In addition,
if the nation is not properly educated the benefit of education will not reflect on economy and will fail to bring the estimated
growth. So ensuring quality education to everyone is important.
Although quality is important, it is always difficult to measure. The World Bank has started national assessment in
partnership with Directorate of Education (DPE) and they have already completed two rounds. However, MoE and MoPME
do not have any structured formal tool to measure and monitor the quality of education in schools. The government’s field
officers go to the schools to check the attendance and ask children few questions to measure the quality of education in that
particular school. This method is very abstract and has scope of bias. There is no tool to measure or rank the judgment of
the field officers either. Hence, the examination result is sometimes considered as an indicator to measure quality of
education.
3.3 Patience is the key
Time is one of the crucial aspects of development. The education sector of Bangladesh has made significant improvements
over the years. However, it has a long way to go. According to reference [34] there are still 3.3 million children out of
school. Bangladesh as a nation will have to be patient. It is a fact that there are many issues involved in providing education
to all. The government, NGOs, International organizations and donor agencies are trying hard to improve the condition
using multidimensional techniques. Nevertheless, it will take time. It may take several generations to be able to offer
international standard quality education to all students in Bangladesh.
3.4 Changing Attitude of Mothers
Bangladesh has a rather transformable social culture than its neighboring countries. There have been significant changes
over last few decades. However, the most visible advancement is the change in the attitude of the Mothers. It is an important
catalyst behind Bangladesh achieving gender parity in primary education. Mothers are now concerned about their children’s
health and education. They work as an active agent to send their children to school irrespective of gender. Mothers save
money to provide nutritious food to their children. They make financial contribution according to their capacity to continue
their children’s education. In addition, mothers now send their children with tiffin box that contains nutritious food. This
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
scenario was not common in Bangladesh even a few years back. It is a testimony that even little educated mother may offer
huge contribution to the development of a country. They may nurse the future generation to become human capital.
3.5 Corruption- A Pulling Down Factor
Corruption in education sector is prevalent. The education sector contains huge budget. In the proposed 2015-16 budget
the finance minister proposed 11.6% of total budget in education and technology [35]. That makes the sector very lucrative
and prone to corruption. There is corruption in every level of the sector. From the recruitment policy of the ministry, to
recruitment of primary school teachers; there are incidents of bribery, nepotism, favoritism and other illegal activities. The
budget allocated by the government and the funds disbursed by the local and international NGOs are also exploited. In
many cases the donor agencies cancel the funding of the projects due to corruption. The salary of the primary school
teachers and headmasters are very poor. Sometimes they are forced to get engaged in corruption due to unbearable poverty.
3.6 Overstatement of Results
Bangladesh being a democratic country, the popularity of the government is crucial for the representatives of the
government. As a result, the government has a tendency to exaggerate board exams results to represent its success. Every
year millions of students are passing S.S.C and H.S.C exams with G.P.A 5 and failing to enter public Universities for higher
studies. In a way overstating results may save children from stopping their further education and fall in to depression, on
the other hand it also questions the quality of the human capital. It is a big reason behind such good results of great number
of students in the board exams not being able to replicate into economic growth of Bangladesh as expected.
3.7 Top- Bottom Approach Followed
All government and NGO led projects and policy making process follow a top to bottom approach. The practitioners and
policy makers fail to understand that nobody can understand the situation and solution to the problems better than the people
suffering it every day. The practiced norm of our country is to follow the top to bottom approach in identifying the problems
and formulating policies. Hence the mass people and their voice are ignored. Thus, the policies and solutions by the
government and NGOs do not reflect the need and solution for the general people.
3.8 Bureaucracy
The government led education sector is highly bureaucratic. It makes introduction of new policy and implementation of
policies challenging. In addition, the bureaucrat dominated system lacks enough scope for effective consultancy by the
think tank. In several cases the think tanks are hired as a formality, yet the government tends to bypass the participatory
approach in policy formulation. In most cases the consultants only reflect the words adding to the government’s image. The
case of foreign donor agencies is even more serious. The donor agencies select their own consultants who only deliver the
words of the donor agents and oblige there rules. In that case only the conditions of the foreign donor agencies are reflected
in to the project, not the need of the mass population.
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
In Bangladesh, the ministries run the government system. However, the inter-ministry communication is rather inefficient.
Moreover, the work between the ministries lacks harmony and contains many loop holes. The lack of coordination works
as an obstacle toward implementing the policies. This is one of the significant reasons behind the system being so
bureaucratic. The government should consider sharing the learning and experience of other ministries while avoiding the
mistakes made earlier by other ministries.
3.8 Lack of Vision
The government should consider long-term goal. However, in Bangladesh the short-term and unplanned contingency
approach is more popular. In most cases,even though it is a necessary step, feasibility test is not conducted. The government
fails to take all the aspects of the society, such as gender, culture, religion etc. into consideration before formulating any
policy. Thus most of the policies fall short of reflecting its benefits to the mass people.
Table: Barriers to Ensuring Quality Education
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Participant Quotation
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
Variable
Barriers
Absorb New
Technology
Corruption
Plagiarism
“Without education the vision to establish digital Bangladesh will not be possible. People need
to be able to receive the technology” ID6 L (21-22).
There is adequate money in the system. Politics always distorts incentive to do better. And that is
the fundamental problem in Bangladesh” ID1 L (87-88).
“Government indirectly supports high passing rates. It is a part of gaining popularity from the people. There
is corruption in the recruitment system of teachers. The Moral height of the teachers has also been
diminished. Question leakage has become a common phenomenon in the last few years” ID7- L (22-25).
“The noise needs to be reduced” ID2- L (61-62).
Benefit
Skilled Labor
“We see that any country that wants to advance to another level of education and the job open up, you need
to have skilled man power, skilled laborers who are able to perform those jobs” ID1 (L 14-16).
Mother's Attitude
“I see one thing very positively that everyone in the villages want their children to be educated, whether
male or female. It was not found 3 to 4 years back. But now even if I go to a remote village where even
electricity is not present, still their family wants to educate their daughters till they can study” ID5 L (5255)
4. Recommendation
4.1 Break through Poverty
The main reason behind government’s failure to reach all students and keeping them in school is poverty. Bangladesh has
recently entered the list of middle income country but it cannot be denied that a large proportion of the population lies under
the extreme poverty line. The government has taken many steps to create opportunity for poor families to send their children
to school. Government has made primary education free for all students. Female students enjoy free education until School
Secondary Certificate (SSC). Soon this opportunity will also be available for male students. Moreover, there is numerous
government and NGO led stipend projects. These initiatives have definitely created prospect for children. However, there
are still more than 3.3 million children out of school [36]. The government needs to provide more scholarships and stipend
to children to create access to education. Government should increase co-ordination with NGOs and international donor
agencies to work together and bring result that is more fruitful.
4.2 Increase in Development Budget
The education budget is divided into two main components, revenue budget and development budget. The revenue budget
is mainly spent on providing salaries and other maintenance charge of the institutions. The government of Bangladesh has
nationalized all the primary schools. The government also pays the salary of the secondary school teachers. Moreover, there
has been an increase in the salary-scale of the school teachers. As a result, the government requires a huge revenue budget
in the education sector, which comes as compromise of the development budget. The trend analysis of education budget
reflects that the development budget is very low compared to revenue budget. Furthermore, the government spending on
education is below 2% of the GDP of the Bangladesh, which is far lower than most of the developing nations. However, to
ensure access to education and provide quality education to the children, Bangladesh needs extensive infrastructure
development, new technology, new instruments and better research opportunity. Therefore, the government must increase
the development budget for education significantly.
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
4.3 Reformation of Education System
Along with improving the infrastructure, the government must pay attention to teacher – student interaction. There should
be a friendly environment in the education institutions. The teacher to student ratio in Bangladesh is very high due to high
population and limited educational institutes. The government should encourage teachers for student friendly approach and
increase interaction in schools. This is more important in the primary education level where the basic education is provided.
The practitioner in the education section are advocating for activity based- learning for the students, especially in the preprimary and primary level.
The government should set minimum hours of teaching in class. The average hours of teaching in most education
institutions in Bangladesh are lower than the international standard for quality education. The government has introduced
Secondary Education Quality and Access Attainment Project (SEQAAP) which has been very successful. But the project
only works for secondary education student and selects a limited number of schools. There should be more projects like
that to increase minimum teaching hours in every level of education. All institution must meet the minimum hours of
teaching according to the international standard.
For a country like Bangladesh with such a huge population, technical education is very important. It is not possible for the
government to provide mainstream education to such large number of children. Moreover, it will not be a rational choice
for the poor families due to poverty. There should definitely be opportunity to follow mainstream education to all children;
however, the children with less attention toward formal education should have the option for technical education. The
government of Bangladesh, along with NGOS, understands the importance of technical education. Untilnow, technical
education is provided upto diploma level. Government may introduce university for technical education. In Bangladesh the
garments sector is the main source of foreign currency. The garments sector has created a revolution for lower –level
workers, especially for women. However, there is a crisis for technical and management employees in the mid- level
employment. In most cases, these employees are hired from foreign countries with a high salary. University for technical
education will create candidates for filling up these posts. Bangladesh has human resource in abundance. The government
should introduce more public institutions that would help transfer of human resource to foreign countries. I would also
avoid unfortunate events. Government may build technical institutions for providing technical training and skill
development program according to the need of the host countries. Moreover, the government should raise awareness about
the free technical education institutes to mass people. These programs require huge fund and fieldwork. To reach students
from all parts of the country government needs to increase coordination with NGOs and donor agencies.
4.4 Creating Incentive for Teachers
Teachers are the primary agent for providing quality education. To provide good education the teachers must feel excited
about their job. They need to have opportunity to exercise their creativity, ideas and learning. The salary of the school
teachers is very poor. Moreover, they are provided minimal benefits and incentives. The government’s attempt to
nationalize all the primary schools in the country was a great initiative. This has improved the situation for school teachers
to a great deal. However, the salary of the school teachers is still very poor. The salary of the school teachers should be
increased so that the new generation teachers may be interested to join primary and higher education sector. The government
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
should create a career path for the primary and secondary school teachers. Currently the scope for promotion, benefit and
increment is very limited. This works as a demoralizing factor for the teachers.
The teachers need proper training. The government provides training to teachers in two ways. Firstly, the teachers are
provided direct training under Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and Teacher’s training institutions. Secondly, the
government provides training under different projects. However, the quality of the training is very poor in most cases. The
government should improve the quality of training by arranging skilled trainers. Moreover, government should focus on
providing subject specific training to the teachers rather than general training.
The teachers at the university level are the trainer of the highly skilled labor force for the future of the country. However,
they are most neglected. The government has proposed a revised salary scale but the university teachers were left ignored.
The government should improve the salary scale of the tertiary level teachers. Research is mandatory for the development
of any nation. However, the scope of research for the university teachers and students are very limited. The teachers will
find incentive if they are provided better opportunities for research. The government should put special focus on establishing
modern scientific laboratories for research for the science faculty.
The examination system in Bangladesh is poor and controversial. The examination results are reported to be overstated to
promote the success of the ruling government. It questions the quality of the education and the worth of the students passing
the exams. This also threatens the future of the nation. As education is the instrument to produce human capital, it the results
of the exams are overstated, it will fail to produce skilled labors. As a result there will be superficial success in the education
sector but it will not reflect on the growth and development of the country.
The tertiary education system in Bangladesh is divided into public and private institutions. There is a serious disparity
between the curriculums followed in these institutions. The public universities in Bangladesh mainly follow the British
curriculum. Some improvements have been made. However, in most cases the changes in curriculum are limited to inter
departmental changes. There is a huge gap of coordination among the departments of the Universities. There is also lack of
coordination between the public universities. The top private universities follow the North American curriculum. As a result
the universities in Bangladesh are covering varying curriculum under the same degree. Government should formulate a
policy for an integrated education system in all universities so that all the students receive same quality education and
follow same curriculum. The government should also put pressure on the universities through policy formulation for
accreditation. This will create recognition for the Bangladeshi students in international universities. The students will get
better opportunities for further education, scholarship and job abroad. Moreover the curriculum in the universities is highly
theoretical. This is another reason the students fail to compete with the rest of the world. The curriculum must include field
study and exposure to real world.
The education system in Bangladesh is mainly divided in four mediums. There are Bengali medium, English medium,
Madrasa education and Vocational education. The different medium of education follows different curriculum, examination
system and teaching method. There is no co-ordination among the schools of different mediums. It results into an imbalance
in the human capital generated. This also creates obstacle in further studies. The English medium students fail to get selected
in public universities as the qualifying exam is completely different form their curriculum. The Madrasa students fail to get
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
any job due to their curriculum. This imbalance only results in to increasing number of jobless educated population. Though
some improvements have been made in the Madrasa education system, more improvement is necessary. The government
should introduce an integrated education system irrespective of the medium of study till secondary level. There should be
some common subjects that must be taught in all medium of education. Such as history of Bangladesh, Geography, Bengali,
Religion etc. This will create a balance among the student’s knowledge and learning. It will also make it possible to ensure
and maintain quality of education all over the country.
Every year the government celebrates free textbook festival on the first day of the year where free textbooks to all primary
and secondary school students are distributed. This is a praiseworthy initiative by the government. In the year 2015, the
government has set a record by distributing large number of free textbooks. However, due to maintaining the strict schedule
of distributing the textbooks on the first day of the year, the books contain many errors. This can end up causing more harm
to the children than benefit. The government needs to be stricter in case of providing error-free books. More attention is
necessary toward the employees who make the corrections. Hence, in most of the cases they are not qualified enough for
doing the task efficiently.
While the other South-Asian countries have thrived a long way through science and innovation, Bangladesh has walked
backward. Over the last two decades, the focus from science has been completely shifted. Science has become a neglected
field. This is alarming for Bangladesh. Science is the precursor of innovation. The government should encourage science
concentration for the future generation. Moreover, government needs to increase the fund for science faculties in public
universities. Infrastructure development for scientific research is very necessary. The government should set up policy for
compulsory research facility in the private Universities. Moreover, government should also increase scholarships for
science students and create scope for innovation. The field of science absence of gender parity is grave. The primary reason
of students losing interest to study science is lack of job opportunity. There are thousands of students left unemployed or
working in a low paying job after passing from the best public engineering university. These issues need to be checked
through reformation.
Education is the fundamental right of all children in Bangladesh. Children who work have the right to education. It is
unfortunate but child labor is widely accepted in Bangladesh. According to reference [37] there are 7.4 million children
between the ages of 5-17 years. The government of Bangladesh is trying to end
child labor and ensure a healthy childhood for every child. However, it is a big challenge due to poverty. It will take time
to reach a position when Bangladesh will be able to end child labor legally. But till then the government should ensure
education of the working children. The necessary policies are present but the government must take steps to implement
those policies. The local and international NGOs play an effective role in providing education to the urban slum children
and child labors. However, the government should get more involved in educating the unprivileged children. Government
may introduce more specific projects for educating the under privileged children. Moreover, the children work during the
day. Therefore, there must be special arrangement for afternoon and night classes for the children. Underprivileged
Children's Education Program (UCEP), a non- profit organization is making significant contribution to provide education
to underprivileged children by introducing a unique process where they provide the formal education in a shorter period.
They also provide the children technical education to prepare them for job. However, a NGO does not hold the capacity to
provide education to such a huge number of students out of schools due to poverty. Therefore, the government must intrude
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
and carry on more projects like UCEP that will educate and guide the underprivileged children from the beginning of their
education until they get a proper job.
The children of sex workers and transgender children have the same right to education like any other children. In
Bangladesh, prostitution is legal. Moreover, the people engaged in prostitution are victim of extreme poverty and abuse.
The children of the sex workers and transgender children are the worst victim in the society. They suffer due to social
stigma and negligence by the society. Although the children are not responsible for their situation, their sufferings start
from the moment they are borne. They are deprived of the love and name of their father. Since all types of registration for
public service requires the name of father, they are deprived of all these services. Getting admission in to schools is a big
challenge for them. Since the government does not recognize their existence in formal documents, they are neglected by
the whole society. Moreover, due to absence of recognition they do not get to exercise their legal right either. Therefore,
the government needs to recognize the existence of transgender children and children of sex workers first through formal
policy. Every registration form and procedure must have an option that will enable them to apply. They should be allowed
to apply with their mother's name as a guardian. The government should encourage the educational institutions to admit
these underprivileged children and take special care of them. The government should introduce primary and secondary
education for the native population. Necessary steps should be takes to provide education and books for them in their native
language. Government should introduce policy to ensure primary and secondary in their own language.
4.5 Formulating Measurement Tool
The donor agencies have formulated some tools to measure quality of education through national assessment. However,
the government does not possess any tool to measure the quality of education. The donor agencies engage the government
as a partner is conducting national assessment but in that case the government is only a minor agent in the process. The
tools that the MoE and MoPME use to measure and assess quality of education are very poor and ineffective. The MoE and
MoPME must formulate their own tool to measure quality of education. They should engage more actively with NGOs and
donor agencies to develop a standard monitoring tool and indicator to measure and evaluate development in the education
sector.
4.6A Zero Tolerance to Corruption Policy
Corruption is the virus to infect the whole system. Unfortunately, education sector is not different from other sectors.
Education sector creates human capital and future of the nation. The government should have zero-tolerance to corruption
and implement strict law against the corrupt for education sector.
4.7 Educate the Mothers
A mother is a children's first teacher. A mother's education and awareness have direct positive effect on children's education.
Educated mothers generate educated children. Government should increase awareness programs in schools where along
with children mothers will get education about importance of education, children's physical and mental development, and
necessary food, health tips for both children and mothers. There are few workshops arranged by the local government
representatives and NGOs. However, the government should introduce a policy to make it mandatory to every primary
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
school to start an awareness-building program for the mothers. Moreover, there should be coordination among government
and NGO effort to bring results that are more successful.
4.8 A Bottom- up Approach for Solution
The bottom-up approach is more effective to bring the ideas and solutions from the field. The government must remember
that people who are experiencing the problems can come up with the best solution for themselves. The government led
projects and policies are run following top to bottom approach. Therefore, the success rate of the policies and the projects
are not good as expected. The government should encourage and follow bottom- up approach for future policymaking and
projects.
Table: Recommendation for Ensuring Quality Education
Variable
Participant Quotation
Recommendation
Improve Education Quality
'Quality is mandatory to transform education into skills that will ultimately result
in growth'. ID8 L (13-14).
Infrastructure Development
“Infrastructure has to be improved” ID2 L- 31
Public Sector
"I think the public sector can do a lot in order to improve the quality of education”
ID1 (71-72).
Increase Development Budget
Teacher- student Interaction
Minimum Class hour
“I think the problem in our case is composition of spending. The expenditure on non-salary
inputs of education is rather limited” ID2 L (21-25).
“The quality of teacher student interaction in the public system is very poor and it must be
improved” ID2- L (48-49).
“We talk a lot about the hours of teaching. Across the world for a country like
Bangladesh the class hours should be at least 900 hours of academic time per year
between student and teacher. In Bangladesh we have as low as 300 hours of
academic time per year” ID1 L (99-101).
Subject Specific Training
“Two important things that came out of the National Assessment program is that teachers
need subject specific training and Inspection. Teaching is a very stressful job. So motivation
has to be there” ID1 L (116-118).
Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
Integrated Education System
Research Facility
Technical Education
“Bangladesh does not have an integrated educational system. It makes it difficult to ensure
the same quality of education throughout the whole education system. Education has
become a very profitable business” ID7- L (32-34).
“There should be fund rise for research purpose. Without research no country can develop”
ID7- L (l-37).
“There should be a lot more public technical institution and public organizations
for skill migration” ID5 L (65-66).
Teacher's Incentive
Formation of Tertiary Education
Curriculum
Educate the Mothers
“Just by increasing their pay you are not going to turn them suddenly into a better worker.
I think increasing pay would be a very short time advice. . But rewarding better performance
and on the other hand punishing poor performance probably is the most effective thing that
may create incentive” ID1 L (111-115).
“The syllabus needs to be changed in Universities. The number of courses will have to be
increased. The education system must be pragmatic and include practical work” ID7-L
(49-51).
“Mothers need to be educated” ID4 L- 25.
Conclusion
The goal of our research was to analyze the relation between education and economic growth and searching for the hidden
issues that hinder the dissemination of quality education in Bangladesh. The research proves a strong link between education
and economic growth. It also explains why the relation between education and economic growth exists and how it affects
each other.
Acknowledgement:
We recognize the relentless contribution of Professor. M Abu Eusuf, Professor. Reazul Haque, Professor. Taiabur Rahman,
Mr. Zahid Hussain, Ms. Ayesha Vawda, Ms. TahminaShamsee, Mr. Aminul Islam Khan and Mr. KawshikDebnath.
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