IID hosted a roundtable at The Daily Star Centre urging the government of Bangladesh to recognize education as a fundamental right and act on new evidence showing that many children complete primary and secondary school without basic reading and numeracy skills. Speakers at the session, including government officials, development partners, academics, media professionals, and political leaders, called for system-wide reforms to secure foundational learning for every child.
As Bangladesh’s implementing partner for nationwide data collection under the International Common Assessment of Numeracy and Reading (ICAN–ICAR), IID presented the country’s most recent findings on foundational learning at the roundtable. ICAN–ICAR is a PAL Network–led cross-country assessment, implemented through its member organizations using a Citizen-Led Assessment (CLA) approach that measures children’s foundational reading and numeracy through simple, household-based tools, including out-of-school children. IID’s findings were published alongside evidence from 10 other countries. Covering all 64 districts, 275 villages, and more than 5,000 households, the assessment offers one of the most comprehensive snapshots of foundational learning in the country. The evidence is timely, showing uneven learning outcomes, gaps between decoding and comprehension, and weaker problem-solving skills; the roundtable connected these findings to practical reform priorities and progress toward SDG 4.1.1(a). As IID CEO Syeed Ahmed noted, “Children can often decode text but fail to comprehend it.”
IID convened the roundtable discussion “Building Competent Learners in Bangladesh: Evidence on Foundational Learning Skills of Children” on 10 December 2025 at The Daily Star Centre, Dhaka, with the session running from 01:45 PM to 03:45 PM. The discussion was moderated by Tanjim Ferdous, In-Charge, NGOs & Foreign Missions at The Daily Star, who guided an action-oriented dialogue using ICAN–ICAR findings among government, development partners, academia, media, and political representatives.
The speakers of the roundtable converged on a central message: Bangladesh faces a learning crisis, not only an access challenge. Several participants highlighted that many children progress through grades without mastering foundational skills, and that classroom learning often rewards memorisation rather than understanding and problem-solving.
A major point of discussion was the growing dependence on private tutoring, which multiple speakers framed as both a symptom of weak classroom instruction and a driver of inequity, placing extra financial burdens on low-income families. The urgency of restoring accountability was captured in a pointed reminder from Samir Ranjan Nath (BRAC Institute of Educational Development): “If families spend heavily on private tutoring, why are schools not teaching adequately? Speakers noted that private tutoring has become both a symptom of weak classroom instruction and a driver of deeper inequity, because it shifts the cost of learning onto families and widens gaps for children from low-income households.Participants discussed the need for stronger oversight to prevent harmful incentives in assessment practices, along with reforms, so examinations and classroom assessments measure comprehension, not rote recall.
Government and development partner representatives emphasized workforce and governance constraints, including large vacancies in teaching and school leadership posts, limited mentoring and monitoring support, and weak career pathways across education institutions. As UNESCO’s Shereen Akther cautioned, “Monitoring, mentoring, and counselling systems are weak; career paths and promotion opportunities are unclear across institutions.” Several speakers stressed that stronger education data systems and interoperability across agencies are essential for evidence-based planning and accountability. This accountability theme was sharpened in the call that every actor should ask, “What am I doing from my responsibility space?”
Participants also underscored the importance of community accountability mechanisms such as PTAs (Parent-Teacher Associations) and SMCs (School Management Committees), alongside targeted remedial action so children who fall behind can catch up within school settings. Participants therefore stressed that stronger community oversight, transparent school-level accountability, and remedial support within schools are essential so learning recovery happens in the classroom, not only through paid tutoring outside it.Building on IID’s wider learning agenda, the discussion noted the potential of structured remedial approaches, including Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), as a practical pathway to respond to immediate learning gaps while system reforms progress.
One speaker noted that 10 December marks Human Rights Day, and on this occasion the roundtable highlighted a key concern: education is still not recognized as a fundamental right in Bangladesh’s constitution, and there is no Right to Education Act. As Khandaker Lutful Khaled stated, “Education is still not recognized as a fundamental human right in Bangladesh’s constitution, and there is no Right to Education Act.” Speakers emphasized that constitutional recognition and a legal right to education would strengthen the state’s obligations, clarify accountability, and provide a firmer basis for demanding equity and quality in education.
The roundtable brought together representatives from the National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE), National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM), Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, alongside UNESCO and Word Bank. Academia and research voices included the Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka, and BRAC University, with civil society and practice perspectives from BRAC. Media personalities from prominent media outlets were also present in this discussion. Political voices joined the dialogue, including representatives from the National Citizens Party (NCP) and Amar Bangladesh Party (ABP). IID and the GPE KIX EMAP Hub (Bangladesh) also contributed to the discussion.
Participants in the discussion agreed that evidence must lead to an implementable reform pathway rather than another standalone report. As a next step, IID will move forward with deeper, Bangladesh-specific analysis of ICAN–ICAR patterns and inequities. Looking ahead, the roundtable converged on a shared agenda: strengthening classroom teaching and assessments to ensure comprehension, addressing governance and incentive structures driving private tutoring, improving teacher recruitment and professional development systems, and building stronger data interoperability to inform decision-making. The discussion also underscored the need to recognize education as a fundamental right, supported by a Right to Education Act, as a unifying priority to anchor accountability and ensure foundational learning becomes a national commitment for every child.