An Evaluation of the Inequality in Education in Bangladesh

1. Introduction
Equal access to education is one of the basic rights of all people. Yet, as many studies have shown,
the academic differences among different groups in many countries are alarming. As the dynamics
of learning have changed in the age of economic reforms, so has the distribution of illiteracy.
Education disparity has risen significantly between rural and urban areas, male and female, since
the reforms started If the skills of citizens were normally distributed, then a distorted distribution
of educational opportunities reflects major losses in welfare. An equal distribution of human
capital (basic literacy and nutrition / health) is, as with lands and resources, a precondition for
individual prosperity and the ability to rise above poverty. In contrast, a fair distribution of
resources would be preferable to a redistribution of current assets or profits. This is because
through its ripple effect, training builds new wealth and increases social welfare, without making
us worse off. Ensuring access to educational resources by representing both the supply and demand
aspects is a win - win approach that is getting support in emerging and developed countries.

While substantial progress in basic education has been made in Bangladesh over the past decade,
the overall situation of several indicators related to education is not satisfactory. Elementary school
enrollment has increased until lately, and the government has spent a good amount on the education
sector. Instead of all these measures, however, little progress has been reported over the years in
the primary and secondary education sector. In contrast, inequality and access problems have
arisen. The National Plan of Action (NPA-ii) has set some goals to guarantee education for all,
and the government has implemented the National Education Policy 2010 to provide
comprehensive education. This research on inequality in Bangladesh's education sector is an
attempt to address different inequalities in education and to make a reality check between the
commitments set out in the National Plan of Action (NPA-ii) and the National Education Policy
(NEP, 2010), so that we can get a clear picture to generate facts and observations that can be used
to design policies.

2. Literature Review
Bangladesh has made remarkable gains over the past two decades by ensuring access to education,
especially at the primary level and for girls. The country’s net enrollment rate at the primary school
level increased from 80 percent in 2000 to 98 percent in 2015, and secondary school net enrollment
is now around 54 percent, up from 45 percent in 2000. Furthermore, the percentage of children
completing primary school is close to 80 percent, and Bangladesh has achieved gender parity in
access, in addition to dramatic decreases in disparities between the highest and lowest consumption
quintiles at both the primary and secondary levels.

Page 1 of 15
Study (Afroj, 2012) found that although there has been a progress in the primary education over
the years, the rate at which it has been occurring is slower than the expectation. There might be
some reasons, which are as follows:
Structural Causes
Inequality is a part of the social structure. Socio-cultural norms, religious matter, lack of parental
education and less expectation for girls’ education create inequality in primary education. People
belonging to the lower class of the society are not allowed to be associated with the upper class in
any way. There has been no strong motivation policy to address the matter of literacy towards
lower castes.
Allocation of Public Expenditure and Implementation Status
The proposed budgetary allocation for education is BDT 20,316 crore for the fiscal year 2011-
2012, which is 9.31 percent higher than the revised budget of FY 2010-2011. The national budget
of FY 2011-2012 has the percentage of 12.13 in case of the education sector. However, although
there is an increasing trend in education budget, the overall educational improvement is not
satisfactory due to the lack of timely implementation status of educational allocation.
Economic Hardship
Still, one-third (31.5 percent) of the population of Bangladesh is living under the poverty line.
Recent price hike of essential commodities (especially, food prices) makes it difficult to maintain
their livelihood. People (especially poor) spend a large part of their expenditure on food and cut
off expenditure from other basic necessities like education for their children. (Basu, 2010).
Opportunity Cost of Going to School
Opportunity cost of going to school for poor and vulnerable households can be affected by two
factors. Firstly, by the savings in house-holds expenses per month by not sending a child to the
school and secondly, by increasing the household income per month by withdrawing a child from
school and engaging him/her into work (Selim, 2009). The opportunity cost of schooling, both in
terms of savings of expenditure and rise in income is found to be relatively higher in rural areas
compared to the urban areas.
Parental Education and Net Enrolment Ratio
There is a positive correlation between net enrolment and parental education. The proportion of
never schooled parents decreased over time - from 47.7% in 1998 to 45.4% in 2000, 35.4% in
2005 and 33.3% in 2008. The net enrolment rate increased for the children of both never and ever
schooled parents during 1998-2005, which became stagnant in 2008 for both the groups (Education
Watch Report, 2008). If the parents remain unaware, the progress in the child education would
remain elusive.
Despite these and other achievements, however, a number of challenges remain:
Quality and relevance. Bangladesh’s workforce of 87 million is largely undereducated (only 4
percent of workers have higher than secondary education), and the overall quality of the country’s
human capital is low. National learning assessments conducted by the Government of Bangladesh
show poor literacy and numeracy skills among students – only 25 percent to 44 percent of the
students in grades 5 through 8 have mastery over Bangla, English and math, and performance on
Page 2 of 15
these measures is especially low among poor students. In general, students have weak reading
skills, and curricula, teaching approaches, and examination systems at all levels focus more on rote
learning than on competencies, critical thinking, and analytical skills. Low relevance of tertiary
education and skills training is another issue of concern. (Pyne and German, 2010). The World
Bank Enterprise Skills Survey 2012, for example, showed that employers believe graduates of
Bangladesh’s higher education and training programs are inadequate for today’s and tomorrow’s
labor market.
Equitable access. Repetition (the number of times students repeat grades) and dropout rates are
still significant in Bangladesh, and only 50 percent of the students who enroll in _rst grade reach
grade 10. Around five million Bangladeshi children between the ages of six and 13 – mostly from
poor families, urban slums, and hard-to-reach areas – remain out of school. Women continue to
lag behind men in higher secondary and tertiary education. In addition, student enrollment is
progressively lower for the poor from the secondary to the tertiary levels. (Raihan, 2009).
Governance and management. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Primary and Mass Education
(MoPME) is responsible for primary education (grades 1 to 5), and the Ministry of Education
(MoE) oversees secondary and post-secondary education. The Government of Bangladesh recently
announced that it will extend free and compulsory primary education to all students through grade
8, a policy that will require close collaboration between MoPME and MoE.
Financing. Government spending on education as a share of the gross domestic product is around
2 percent, the second lowest in South Asia, and lower than in most other countries at similar levels
of development. (Bank, 2016)

3. Methodology
The purpose of this study was to identify the inequality in the education sector of Bangladesh.
Secondary data were used to conduct this study. Secondary data were collected from the books,
magazines, and journals to review literature. Panel data of last 13 years from 2005-2018 were used
for the analysis. Secondary data were collected from primary education census, Directorate of
Primary Education portal, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education portal, Annual
education survey, World bank metadata and UNICEF annual reports. Different websites such as
ceicdata.com, banbeis.com, knoema.com, the globaleconomy.com were used to retrieve historical
data. Historical analysis of all sectors such as primary level, secondary level, tertiary education
and education finance was conducted to investigate the inequality. The variables used in this study
are: Net Enrollment Rate, Drop Out Rate, Pupil-Teacher Ratio, Trained teacher ratio, Guardians’
Occupation for primary, secondary and tertiary education. Variables such as Share of Education
budget as a percent of National budget, Expenditure on different level of education, Education
Investment as percent of GDP were used to investigate inequality in education finance.

Page 3 of 15
4. Findings and Discussions

4.1 Inequality in Primary Education

Bangladesh is committed to achieve Universal Primary Education in line with the targets of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which envisages the provision of a quality basic
education for all children by 2030. As a result, the primary education system in Bangladesh aims
to maximize the enrolment of all primary school age (6-10 years) children. This chapter presents
the findings of inequality in Primary Education in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh primary education system is large, catering to 17.338 million students in 2018
through 25 types of providers. Among them the girl students totaled 87, 99,033 (50.75%). The
total number of working teachers was 6, 85,400 (all types of schools). Of these teachers, female
teachers were 4, 26,651 (62.25%).

Net Enrollment Rate in Primary Education

Net Enrollment represents the enrollment of the official age group for a given level of education
expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population. The purpose of measuring this rate is
to show the extent of coverage in a given level of education of children and youths belonging to
the official age group corresponding to the given level of education.

Formula:

Where,

t
NERh = Net Enrolment Ratio at level of education h in school year t

Eth,a= Enrolment at the level of education h in school year t

Pth,a = Population in age group a which officially corresponds to the level of education h in
school year t

Table 1 shows the Net enrollment of students in primary education of Bangladesh.

Table 1: Net Enrollment in Primary Education in Bangladesh

Net Enrollment in Primary Education

Year Boys Girls Total
2005 84.6 90.1 87.2
Page 4 of 15
 2006 87.6 94.5 90.9
2007 87.8 94.7 91.1
2008 87.9 90.4 90.8
2009 89.1 99.1 93.9
2010 92.2 97.6 94.8
2011 92.7 97.3 94.9
2012 95.4 98.1 96.7
2013 96.2 98.4 97.3
2014 96.6 98.8 97.7
2015 97.1 98.8 97.7
2016 97.01 98.8 97.96
2017 97.66 98.29 97.97
2018 97.55 98.16 97.85
Source: Annual Primary School Census, 2018

The table shows that Net Enrollment in primary education in Bangladesh increased rapidly from
87.2 percent in 2005 to 97.85 percent in 2018. Net enrollment rate of boys was 97.55 percent and
rate for girls was 98.16 percent in 2018. The trend analysis shows that the net enrollment of both
boys and girls have increased closed to the maximum possible rate in recent years. It signifies that
the inequality in primary education has been declining at a great speed.

Dropout Ratio in Primary Education

The dropout rate in primary education has declined from 47.2 in 2005 to 18.6 in 2018. This is a
significant improvement. Even a decade ago, the dropout rate from primary schools was severe
as the female children had to stop their education because of poverty. Now with the swift
economic growth girls’ dropout rate has declined gradually. (Figure 2)

Net Enrollment in Primary Education

102
100
98
96
94
92
90
88
86
84
82
2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Boys Girls Total

Figure 1: Net Enrollment in Primary Education

Page 5 of 15
 Dropout DROPOUT RATE (%)
Year Rate (%)
60
2005 47.2
2006 50.5 50.5 50.5 49.3
50 47.2
2007 50.5 45.1
2008 49.3 39.8
2009 45.1 40
2010 39.8 29.7
2011 29.7 30 26.2
2012 26.2 21.4 20.9 20.4
19.2 18.85 18.6
2013 21.4 20
2014 20.9
2015 20.4
10
2016 19.2
2017 18.85
2018 18.6 0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Figure 2: Dropout Rate in Primary Education in Bangladesh

Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Primary Education

The Pupil-Teacher ratio indicates the number of students enrolled in primary schools for each
teacher. The trend analysis shows that the pupil teacher ratio has declined over the years which is
a good sign. The pupil-teacher ratio was maximum in 2013 (51%) and lowest in last year (30%).
It signifies that the imbalance between the number of students and teachers have been reduced
lately.

Year Pupil-
Teacher
Ratio
2005 47.04%
2006 47.54%
2007 44.75%
2008 43.73%
2009 45.76%
2010 42.97%
2011 40.21%
2012 49.00%

Page 6 of 15
 2013 51.00%
2014 42.00% PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO
2015 36.13% 60.00%
2016 33.94%
2017 30.05% 50.00%
2018 30.00%
40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
20052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018

Figure 3: Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Primary Education in Bangladesh

Inequality in Secondary Education

Net Enrollment in Secondary Education

Table 2 demonstrates the enrollment ratio of boys and girls as percentage of total students in the
secondary education.
Table 2: Enrollment as Percent of Total Students in Secondary Schools

ENROLLMENT (% Total Students)

Year Boys Girls
2005 47.72 52.28
2006 47.74 52.26
2007 46.31 53.69
2008 48.39 51.61
2009 46.69 53.31
2010 46.39 53.61
2011 46.72 53.28
2012 46.84 53.16
2013 46.78 53.22
2014 46.69 53.31
2015 46.23 53.77
2016 45.98 54.02
2017 45.98 54.02

Page 7 of 15
 2018 46.01 53.99

The findings reveal that enrollment of boys in secondary school has decreased from 2005 to 2018.
In 2005 boys’ ratio in secondary education was 47.72 percent which has come to 46.01 percent of
total students in last year. On the other hand, girls’ enrollment in secondary school has seen a
steady growth from 52.28 percent in 2005 to 53.99 percent of total students in 2018. It indicates
that gender based inequality in secondary level is declining promptly.

Enrollment (% Total Students)

56
54
52
50
48
46
44
42
40
BOYS GIRLS

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Figure 4: Enrollment as Percent of Total Students in Secondary Schools

Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Secondary Education

It refers to the average number of pupils (students) per teacher at a specific level of education in a
given school year. The purpose is to measure the level of human resources input in terms of the
number of teachers in relation to the size of the pupil population. The results can be compared with
established national norms on the number of pupils per teacher for each level or type of education.

Year Pupil-
Teacher
Ratio
2005 23.92
2006 25.05
2007 25.24
2008 27.07
2009 28.16
2010 28.33

Page 8 of 15
 2011 30.62
2012 32.24
2013 35.20
2014 37.64
2015 38.38
2016 36.19
2017 33.98
2018 35.10

Pupil-Teacher Ratio
40.00 2005
35.00 2006
30.00 2007

25.00 2008

20.00 2009

15.00 2010
2011
10.00
2012
5.00
2013
0.00
PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO 2014

Figure 5: Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Secondary Education

The trend analysis shows that the pupil teacher ratio in secondary education was quite high in last
few years and it was also higher than that of primary education, which is not satisfactory. This
sector needs more teachers to meet up the high rate of student enrollment.

Trained Teacher in Secondary Education

Lack of trained and qualified teachers is still a major issue in our education sector. Table 3 shows
the number and percentage of trained teachers in our secondary schools. The results show that the
number of trained teachers in junior secondary school is very low and the total percent of trained
teachers is only 66.86 percent in secondary education. The reason could be lack of monitoring and
ignorance of authority.

Table 3: Trained Teacher Percentage in Secondary Education

Type of School No. of Teacher No. of Trained Teacher % of Trained Teacher

Junior Secondary School 20623 5453 26.44%
Page 9 of 15
 Secondary School 189081 135852 71.85%
School and Colleges 24461 15261 62.39%
(School Section)
Total 234165 156566 66.86%

Trained Teacher (%)

80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
%OF TRAINED TEACHER

Junior Secondary School Secondary School

School and Colleges (School Section) Total

Figure 6: Trained Teacher in Secondary Schools

Distribution of Student by their Guardian’s Occupation

We analyzed the occupation of students’ guardians of higher secondary schools to investigate the
inequality. Table 4 shows that most of the students’ guardian are farmers (47.29%), followed by
laborer (18.94%), small traders (7.61%), businessman (6.96%), private employee (5.4%), working
abroad (3.67%), Government service (2.57%) and so on. The result signifies that most of the
students are from poor family and the rural farmers’ children has the highest amount of attainment
in the secondary education. This implies that inequality in secondary education is at a moderate
level and declining gradually.

Page 10 of 15
 Table 4: Distribution of Student by their Guardian’s Occupation 2018

Sl. %
Occupation Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Total
No. Occupation
1. Farmer 1140029 1135637 1107916 776855 793448 4953885 47.29

2. Laborer 447938 450365 443993 321299 320243 1983838 18.94

3. Small Traders 169930 175448 177852 135951 137997 797178 7.61

4. Businessman 164373 158788 156306 124678 124408 728552 6.96

Private
5. Employee 120502 121377 124200 100555 99383 566017 5.40

Working
6. Aboard 83309 83809 88226 61590 67516 384449 3.67

7. Govt. Service 63204 57769 55343 47256 45244 268817 2.57

8. Fisherman 56432 50533 45786 31483 31269 215503 2.06

9. Teacher 32409 31119 29771 24415 24148 141862 1.35

10. Tati 8056 8727 8452 6127 5868 37231 0.36

11. Doctor 8055 7757 7490 6155 6096 35554 0.34

12. Potter 7623 7334 6924 5175 5262 32317 0.31

13. Lawyer 3324 3150 3403 2895 2922 15693 0.15

14. Engineer 2012 1946 1768 1771 1811 9309 0.09

15. Other 61160 68705 70172 50513 54343 304894 2.91

Total 2368356 2362465 2327600 1696720 1719959 10475100 100.00

Tertiary Education
Table 5 represents an overview of University education in Bangladesh. The table shows that there
are 145 universities in Bangladesh at present among which 42 are public and 103 are private. There
are a total of 29374 teachers in these universities among which only 26.46 percent are female

Page 11 of 15
teachers. More than 1 million students are enrolled in the tertiary education among which only
33.94 percent are girls. This result signifies that there exists inequality based on gender in the
tertiary education.

Table 5: An Overview of Tertiary Education in Bangladesh

Type of No. of Teacher Student

University University Total Female % Female Total Girl % Girl
Public 42 13799 3281 23.78 676623 251008 37.10
Private 103 15575 4490 28.83 351691 98037 27.88
Total 145 29374 7771 26.46 1028314 349045 33.94

Source: Annual Education Survey, 2018

Pupil-Teacher Ratio
The Pupil-teacher ratio in universities is not satisfactory. The graph shows that the pupil teacher
ratio had an upward trend. It indicates that the average number of students per teacher has increased
over the years. The student enrollment rate is increasing but teachers are not adequate to cover all
the students efficiently. The reason could be lack of interest of youth in teaching profession due to
increasing level of politics and corruption in the system.

Year Pupil-
Teacher Ratio Pupil-Teacher Ratio
2005 17.43 40.00 37.12
2006 17.80
35.00
2007 18.80 28.97
30.34
2008 21.03 30.00 26.9527.3125.96 27.68

2009 26.95 25.00 23.0923.0022.87

21.03
2010 27.31 18.80
2011 25.96 20.00 17.4317.80

2012 23.09 15.00

2013 23.00
10.00
2014 22.87
2015 27.68 5.00
2016 28.97
0.00
2017 30.34 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2018 37.12

Education Finance

The findings demonstrate inequality in finance on education in Bangladesh. The results show that
share of education budget as a percent of total national budget has declined from 12.11% in 2011-

Page 12 of 15
12 to 11.53% in 2018-19. Though the national budget has increased by 4 times the share of
education budget did not increase at that pace. (Table 6)

Table 6: Share of Education Budget in National Budget (Taka in Crore)

Year National Budget Education Budget (%) of National Budget

2011-12 163,589 19,806 12.11%
2012-13 191,738 21.408 11.17%
2013-14 222,491 25,093 11.28%
2014-15 250,506 29,213 11.66%
2015-16 295,100 31,618 10.71%
2016-17 340,604 49,019 14.39%
2017-18 400,266 50,440 12.60%
2018-19 464,573 53,549 11.53%

Source: World bank Metadata: Bangladesh, 2018.

Table 7 shows that Post-Secondary tertiary and tertiary level has lowest amount of investment. It
means there are lack of investment in higher education in comparison with primary and secondary
education. Universities had only 16.83 percent of total education investment. It has negative
impact on the growth and quality of the universities.

Table 7: Education Expenditure by Level (2017-18)

Sl. No. Education Levels Expenditure (In Crore) Percent

1 Primary level 22022 43.66%
2 Junior Secondary 8681 17.21%
3 Upper Secondary 10244 20.31%
4 Post-Secondary Non Tertiary 1002 1.99%
5 Tertiary 8491 16.83%
Total 50440 100.00%

A cross sectional analysis was done among some Asian countries in table 8 based on their public
expenditure on education as a percent of nation’s GDP. The findings show that Bangladesh’s
expenditure on education was only 1.54 percent of total GDP. On the other hand, the neighboring
country India had 3.71 %, Pakistan 2.90 %, Srilanka 2.80%, Maldives 4.25%, Afghanistan 4.10%
and Nepal had the highest expenditure of 5.20% as percent of GDP. It indicates that there remains
inequality in finance on education in Bangladesh compared with the other developing countries of
Asia.

Page 13 of 15
 Table 8: Public Expenditure on Education as % of GDP

Country Year Expenditure (% GDP)

Bangladesh 2017 1.54
India 2017 3.71
Pakistan 2017 2.90
Sri Lanka 2017 2.80
Maldives 2017 4.25
Afghanistan 2017 4.10
Nepal 2017 5.20

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

The aim of the study was to investigate the inequalities in the education sector in Bangladesh. This
study used secondary data to analyze the inequality in the education system. Secondary data were
collected from primary education census, Directorate of Primary Education portal, Directorate of
Secondary and Higher Education portal, Annual education survey, World bank metadata and
UNICEF annual reports. We used data of 13 years from 2005-2018 in this paper. This study
investigated inequality in four sectors: primary education, secondary education, tertiary education
and education finance. The result shows that inequality between girls and boys, inequality between
students and teachers has declined rapidly in primary education. The net enrollment rate has
increased and dropping out rate and student-teacher ratio has declined in primary education. On
the other hand, in secondary education the enrollment rate of girls is higher than that of boys. The
pupil-teacher ratio has also declined but need to be checked. The results show that most of the
parents of these students are farmers and laborers. Though there was less discrimination in primary
and secondary education, there was several types of inequality in university level. The number of
girls attaining higher education is only 2/3rd of the overall students. It means there are lower
transmission rate from secondary to tertiary education among girls. Lastly, severe inequality was
seen in the financing on education. Only 11.53% of national budget was allocated as education
budget. Furthermore, the investment on university level was the least among all the levels. The
result shows that the expenditure on education as a percent of GDP was least among the other
Asian countries. The study recommends that Government should invest a significant portion of its
budget on higher education to eliminate inequality in tertiary education. More incentives should
be provided for teachers so that youth get encouraged in teaching profession. It will reduce the
pupil-teacher ratio problem in tertiary education. Moreover, Governments and NGOs should
increase awareness programs to encourage female students in the higher education.

6. References

1. Afroj, S. (2012). Ongoing Corporate Human Resource Management Practice in Banking

sector of Bangladesh. Global Journal of Management and Business Research. Volume 12
Issue 2 Version 1.0 February 2012 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International
Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-4588 & Print
ISSN: 0975-5853

Page 14 of 15
2. BANBEIS. (2018). Bangladesh Education Statistics 2018. BANBEIS. Dhaka.
3. Bank, T. W. (2016). Bangladesh: Ensuring Education for All Bangladeshis. Retrieved
from http://www.worldbank.org/
4. Basu, F. K. and Asad, A. U. Z. (2010). Education Policy: Problems and Prospects of EFA
in Bangladesh [online] Available at: http://www.bdeduarticle.com/education-policy/37-
uncatagorized/157-problems-and-prospects-of-efa-in-bangladesh
5. Hossain, J. and Titumir, R. A. M. (2008). Gender Equality in Education: Towards an
Understanding for a Paradigmatic Shift [online].Available at:
www.unnayan.org/edu.conf/march.3/03.00-Jakir-Hossain.pdf
6. Pyne S. and German E. (2010). The dreams of Dhaka's garment girls [online] Available
at: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia/100831/bangladesh-megacities-part-two-
garment-girl
7. Raihan, S. (2009). Impact of Food Price Rise on School Enrolment and Dropout in the poor
and Vulnerable Households in Selected Areas of Bangladesh, Department of Economics,
University of Dhaka. Available at:
http://www.bracresearch.org/publications/monograph_dfid1.pdf
8. Sebate, R., kyeampong, K., Westbrook, J. and Hunt, F. (2010). ‘School Drop-out: Patterns,
Causes, Changes and Policies’ Background Paper 2011/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/08, United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Bangladesh. Available at:
http://www.unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190771e.pdf

Page 15 of 15