China’s Education Model Could Transform Bangladesh’s Human Resources
A recent initiative by Bangladesh’s Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Hoque Milon has revived an old question in my mind: how can education be transformed from a system of awarding degrees into a system for producing skilled and productive human resources?
After returning from a recent visit to China, the Education Minister said on August 30 that Bangladesh wanted to follow China’s model of strengthening the linkage between industry and educational institutions in order to improve technical skills and expand employment opportunities.
The proposal has already attracted criticism. Professor Md Shahabul Haque of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology reportedly pointed out that although Bangladesh has thousands of technical institutions, many suffer from shortages of teachers, inadequate laboratories and insufficient opportunities for practical training. In some institutions, he noted, even student enrolment is inadequate.
There may be justification for such concerns. Officials of the Directorate of Technical Education are better placed to respond to them. I do not intend to enter that debate.
Instead, I would like to recall an experience from my student days—an experience that seems remarkably relevant today.
A Question Raised Nearly Half a Century Ago
Soon after Bangladesh became independent, the National Education Commission was formed in 1972 under the chairmanship of the distinguished scientist Dr Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda.
The country was then facing the enormous task of rebuilding an education system devastated by war.
At that time, I was a master’s student at Rajshahi University, one of the country’s important centres of education and culture.
The Vice-Chancellor was Professor Dr Khan Sarwar Murshid, an eminent scholar of English literature. He maintained a remarkably cordial relationship with student leaders, and we often discussed various issues at his residence.
In late 1973 or early 1974, members of the Qudrat-i-Khuda Education Commission visited Rajshahi University.
Vice-Chancellor Murshid arranged a meeting between the Commission members and leaders of the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union and various student organizations Among those present were Nurul Islam Thandu, Md Shamsul Haque Tuku, Subrata Chowdhury, Rezaul Karim, Fazlur Rahman Patal and myself. Rezaul Karim and Fazlur Rahman Patal are no longer alive.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear students’ views before the Commission finalised its recommendations.
The discussion initially centred on conventional academic questions: university curricula, the duration of honours and master’s programmes, examination systems and language courses.
At one point, Vice-Chancellor Murshid turned to me and asked why I was silent.
I replied that while the Commission was considering the duration and examination procedures of different stages of university education, I was thinking about what would happen after graduation.
“If an employer asks me for five years of experience after I complete my honours and master’s degrees,” I asked, “where will I obtain that experience? Acquiring a degree and acquiring professional skills is not the same thing.”
I suggested that perhaps education should allow students to enter practical work after completing one stage of education and return to higher education when their professional responsibilities required it.
I also wondered whether Bangladesh could examine the experiments then being undertaken in China.
The discussion changed immediately.
Professor Murshid observed that the thinking of the younger generation did not always coincide with that of the older generation.
He acknowledged that China’s education system had undergone fundamental changes, but said Bangladesh was not then moving towards such a radical transformation.
Nearly half a century later, that conversation has returned to me.
What Bangladesh Can Learn from China
China’s experience is not simply a matter of copying a foreign education system. It’s important lesson is the systematic connection between education, skills, industry and employment.
China’s Ministry of Education reports that between 2012 and 2021, its vocational education system produced 61 million skilled graduates.
During the same period, more than 1,500 vocational education alliances were established, around 3,000 enterprises collaborated with vocational schools, and 24,900 training centres were jointly established by schools and enterprises.
China has continued to deepen this approach. Its 2026 reforms call for stronger cooperation among government, industry, enterprises and educational institutions, with professional courses, teaching materials, teachers and practical training linked more closely to industrial requirements.
The reforms also emphasise workplace-based training and the participation of enterprises in curriculum development.
This is particularly relevant to Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh-China initiative is no longer merely theoretical. On August 28, Bangladesh and China signed a MoU to establish a joint vocational education, training and research centre.
The proposed cooperation includes teacher training, industry-linked skills development, bilingual teaching materials, research, industrial training in Bangladesh, study visits to China and specialised programmes for vocational education administrators.
Do Not Copy—Adapt
The criticism that Bangladesh’s technical education infrastructure is weak should not necessarily become an argument against reform. Rather, those weaknesses identify where reform is most urgently needed.
But Bangladesh should not attempt to transplant China’s system wholesale. The two countries differ in economic structure, industrial capacity, labour markets and educational traditions.
What Bangladesh needs is not a Chinese education system, but a Bangladesh-adapted version of the principles that have made China’s vocational education increasingly connected with its economy.
Human Resources Are Bangladesh’s Greatest Opportunity
The real wealth of Bangladesh is not simply its large population. It is the possibility of transforming that population into skilled human resources.
For decades, our education system has placed enormous emphasis on certificates and academic qualifications.
Those remain important, but a degree cannot substitute for practical competence.
A young person who spends many years in education and emerges without employable skills faces a difficult transition into the labour market.
I still remember the day when we walked from the university’s administrative building towards the Vice-Chancellor’s residence, passing the shrine of Dr Shamsuzzoha along the eucalyptus-lined road.
I remember the distinguished scholars, the discussions and even the elaborate lunch that followed. Many memories of Rajshahi University have faded with time, but that day remains vivid.
I could hardly have imagined then that, decades later, the question I raised in that meeting would return in the context of China’s experience.
The proverb says: “A tree is known by its fruit.” The same principle should guide educational reform. What matters ultimately is not what a system is called, but what it produces.
China’s experience offers Bangladesh an opportunity to test a different approach—one in which education is more closely connected with production, skills with employment, and knowledge with practical application.
As Deng Xiaoping famously illustrated through the metaphor of the cat, its colour is less important than whether it can catch mice.
For Bangladesh, the essential question is therefore simple: How many skilled people are we producing, how many are finding productive employment, and how effectively are they contributing to national development?
If the Chinese experience can help us answer those questions more effectively, Bangladesh should study it seriously, adapt what is useful to our own circumstances, and test it in practice.
The objective should not be to imitate China. It should be to build an education system capable of turning Bangladesh’s enormous human potential into productive human capital.
(The writer is the Advisory Editor of the New Nation)
