The Politics of Learning Reforms in Bangladesh

Abstract

Why has Bangladesh failed to raise quality in basic education after it so successfully expanded school provision? This chapter explores the politics of both Bangladesh’s successful expansionary, and its lagged efforts to tackle the persistently poor quality of basic education. Using a political settlements lens, it shows how the competitive but clientelistic nature of Bangladesh’s politics shaped policies to expand schooling provision, without attending to learning—and in particular without addressing teacher performance. It analyses the elite consensus on mass education and the design of the Third Primary Education Development Programme (2011–15), tracing the analysis down through the education administration system to how schools themselves implement learning reforms. It concludes that the state has started to take learning seriously, but the political impetus for policies to hold teachers accountable for their performance lacks the wide support of the successful expansionary drive, so that any progress is slow.