Why Primary Schools Are Failing to Deliver Learning

Bangladesh has achieved something remarkable in primary education: it has built one of the largest systems of its kind in the world. More than 20 million children are enrolled across more than 118,000 institutions, reaching communities from cities and hard-to reach areas. Yet behind this impressive scale lies an uncomfortable question: what does it mean to bring millions of children into classrooms if they are not equipped there with the skills they are supposed to acquire?
This is the paradox at the heart of Bangladesh’s primary education system. Access has expanded, enrolment has grown and gender parity has been achieved, but learning has not kept pace. The World Bank’s recent assessment paints a disturbing picture. Around 51% of 10-year-old children cannot read and understand simple age-appropriate texts in Bangla and English, while many also fail to acquire basic mathematical skills. The National Student Assessment data make the deterioration particularly difficult to ignore. In 2011, about 67% of third-graders reached the desired proficiency level in Bangla. By 2022, that figure had fallen to 51%. Mathematics declined from 50% to 39%. Among fifth-graders, mathematics proficiency stood at only 30% in 2022. These figures suggest that Bangladesh has spent years expanding the machinery of education without adequately strengthening its core function.
The scale of public investment makes this contradiction even more striking. More than Tk33,000 crore was spent on PEDP-3 and PEDP-4 between 2011 and 2022. Yet learning outcomes have not improved proportionately. This does not necessarily mean that the money was wasted. Bangladesh has genuine infrastructure deficits, and investments in classrooms, sanitation, digital facilities and other resources are necessary. But expenditure cannot be treated as synonymous with educational progress.
This is where the debate over education reform needs to change direction. Bangladesh often approaches educational problems through projects. A new curriculum is introduced, another training programme is announced, digital devices are distributed and another round of infrastructure development begins. Each initiative may have merit individually, but the cumulative result can become a cycle of reform without institutional learning. When one reform has barely been implemented, another arrives. Teachers have to adjust repeatedly, schools struggle to absorb new instructions and parents are left uncertain about what their children are actually expected to learn.
The most important investment, therefore, may be the least glamorous one: the teacher. A 2026 study by the National Academy of Primary Education found a striking gap between teachers’ claimed competence in digital learning and their actual classroom performance. Around 60% reportedly considered themselves skilled, but only about one-quarter could demonstrate those skills effectively in teaching. It reveals a wider weakness in teacher preparation. Giving someone a device does not make that person a better teacher. Teacher shortages compound the problem. Of more than 65,000 head-teacher positions in government primary schools, more than 27,000 are reportedly vacant. That means a substantial number of schools are operating without permanent leadership at a time when effective school management is desperately needed.
There is also a deeper social question. Why would the most capable young graduates choose primary teaching if the profession does not offer sufficient status, career progression, remuneration and professional recognition? Educational reform cannot be separated from the social value assigned to teachers. If society treats primary teachers as low-level employees rather than as the people responsible for shaping the intellectual foundations of the next generation, the system will struggle to attract and retain the talent it needs.
Perhaps the greatest danger is that Bangladesh may mistake educational expansion for educational success. The country can continue building schools, distributing devices and establishing higher educational institutions while quietly producing generations of students who move from one grade to another without mastering the foundations of reading, writing and mathematics. Eventually, the weakness appears in secondary school, higher education and the labour market. By then, remediation becomes far more expensive and difficult.
Primary education is not simply the first stage of schooling. It is the foundation upon which every subsequent educational and economic ambition rests. A country cannot build a knowledge economy on children who leave primary school without basic literacy and numeracy. Nor can it expect universities and employers to repair learning deficits accumulated during the first years of education.
The government’s emphasis on more engaging learning, teacher training, sports, culture and digital resources is therefore welcome, but the test must be outcomes rather than announcements. Every reform should ultimately answer a simple question: are children learning better?
Bangladesh needs to move from an infrastructure-centred model of educational development to a learning-centred one. That means recruiting capable teachers, improving their professional status, strengthening specialised training, filling leadership vacancies, reducing unnecessary curriculum disruption, improving assessment and making schools accountable for actual learning. It also means evaluating every major education project against measurable improvements in children’s skills rather than merely the number of buildings constructed or devices distributed.
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The writer is an academic, 
journalist and political analyst. 
He can be reached at 
[email protected]