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Sunday | September 20, 2026 | Dhaka

Primary education pledges stuck in transition

 Staff Reporter
 Published: 12:56 AM, 20 September 2026
Quick-win schemes advance as structural reforms lag

Bangladesh has made an initial advance towards meeting its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitments on quality and inclusive primary education, but a significant implementation gap remains, with none of the government’s 24 relevant election pledges yet reaching the final stage of action, a study has found.

The study by the Citizens Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh said the government had made a credible start on several commitments, particularly initiatives that can be implemented relatively quickly, but warned that sustaining momentum and translating policy decisions into full-scale delivery would be the major challenge.

The findings were presented on Saturday at a dialogue titled “Is the Government Delivering? Spotlight on Primary Education”, organised by the Citizens Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh at a city hotel in Gulshan.

Towfiqul Islam Khan, Additional Director (Research) at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), presented the keynote paper, while Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya,
Convener of the Citizens Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, chaired the session.

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj attended as the chief guest.

The study assessed 24 election manifesto pledges linked to primary education using a five-stage framework, ranging from “Reform Proposed” to “Action Implementation.”

Of the 24 pledges, three relate specifically to primary and pre-primary education, while the remaining 21 are cross-cutting commitments covering both primary and higher levels of education.

None of the pledges has yet reached the final “Action Implementation” stage, the study found.

Of the three primary-specific commitments, one is at the “Reform Initiated” stage, another has reached the “Legal & Policy Framework” stage, while the third is at the “Operationalisation” stage.

Among the 21 cross-cutting pledges, eight have advanced to the operationalisation stage.

These include the mid-day meal programme, free distribution of school uniforms, teachers’ retirement benefits, the “One Child, One Tree” campaign and multimedia classrooms.

The researchers observed that quick-win and symbolic initiatives had progressed more rapidly, while several structural reforms remained stalled at the proposal stage.

These include the proposed establishment of an Education Reform Commission, measures to ensure health protection for female students and the introduction of a dedicated education television channel.

The study also raised concerns over education financing, noting that the allocation for education in FY2026-27 stands at 1.8 percent of GDP. This remains 0.4 to 0.5 percentage points below the pathway required to reach the Citizens Platform’s proposed target of 5 percent of GDP by 2031.

Actual spending has also remained below the allocation, with education expenditure amounting to around 1.3 percent of GDP in FY2024-25. Overall budget utilisation declined to about 76 percent during FY2023-FY2025, according to the study.

The delayed rollout of the fifth Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP5) was identified as a major bottleneck. As many as 16 of the 24 tracked pledges are linked to the programme.

The researchers warned that further delays could shorten the effective 2026-31 implementation window of PEDP5 and hamper progress in foundational literacy, teacher quality and school infrastructure.

The study called for immediate clarification of the reasons behind the delay in launching PEDP5 and closer monitoring of education expenditure to determine whether higher budget utilisation is translating into improvements in learning quality rather than being driven largely by salary-related costs.

It also recommended ring-fencing education allocations amid fiscal pressures, publishing citizen-friendly quarterly budget reports, and addressing persistent procurement and project-implementation bottlenecks.

The findings underscored that progress towards the SDG targets in primary education will depend not only on announcing reforms but also on timely financing, effective implementation and sustained monitoring until the commitments are fully delivered.