ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the size and growth of the education system, followed by a brief discussion of the political economy of educational policy making. It presents policy initiatives and identified priorities in education and discusses the challenges in pursuing the identified policy priorities. The education system in Bangladesh consists of some 150,000 institutions, about 40 million students and almost a million teachers. Effective participation measured by completion of a stage of education and acceptable learning achievements of students is much lower than the enrolment rates may suggest. Since the birth of Bangladesh, several national education commissions and committees have been appointed at various times to formulate education policies and priorities in line with national goals and aspirations. A statist mindset is reflected in various education policy statements, including the latest one adopted in 2010. Bangladesh has one of the lowest-cost education systems, even compared to other least developed countries.
