What the Declining Enrolment in Secondary Schools is Telling Us
Bangladesh’s education system faces a troubling contradiction: secondary schools are increasing, yet hundreds of thousands of students are disappearing from classrooms.
Enrolment in madrasas and English-medium schools has risen, while independent technical and vocational institutions have experienced a decline. Meanwhile, thousands of teachers teach English and mathematics without relevant academic qualifications, and many lack professional training.
Together, these trends suggest that the crisis is not simply about how many institutions the country builds, but what they offer, whom they serve and whether students have reasons to stay.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), secondary-level enrolment fell from approximately 9.06 million in 2024 to 8.64 million in 2025, a decline exceeding 425,000 students.
During the same period, the number of secondary schools increased from 19,117 to 19,211. If infrastructure is expanding while enrolment contracts, policymakers must ask why. More institutions do not necessarily mean better educational opportunities. A school may employ teachers and admit students but still fail to provide the quality of education needed to retain them.
The decline should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that every missing student has dropped out. Population changes, migration, transfers between educational streams and differences in data collection may explain part of the movement.
Nevertheless, a decline of this magnitude demands investigation. Education statistics should do more than count institutions, teachers and students.
They should explain why children enter schools, why they leave and what prevents them from completing their education.
The divergence between general secondary education and alternative streams deserves particular attention.
Enrolment in madrasa education increased by more than 43,000 in 2025, while English-medium schools recorded a smaller increase. Independent technical and vocational institutions, meanwhile, experienced declining enrolment. These figures do not establish that students are transferring directly from schools to other streams.
They do, however, raise questions about parental expectations, perceived educational quality, affordability, cultural preferences and the anticipated value of different qualifications.
Parents rarely choose educational institutions in a vacuum. They seek what they believe will secure their children’s future. For some, that means religious education alongside general qualifications.
For others, it means English proficiency, international curricula or overseas university opportunities. Families attending conventional secondary schools may have fewer alternatives, particularly when household incomes are limited.
Their children might attend the nearest affordable institution not because it provides the best education, but because no realistic alternative exists.
This distinction matters because educational inequality concerns not only who attends school but also who receives an education that creates meaningful opportunities. Wealthier families can compensate for classroom weaknesses through private tutors, coaching centres and digital resources.
Low-income families often cannot. When teaching quality varies dramatically, education risks reproducing the inequalities it should help overcome.
The qualifications of teachers responsible for foundational subjects make this problem more serious. BANBEIS data showed that 19,182 of the 64,233 teachers conducting English classes lacked a graduate degree in English. In mathematics, 10,169 of 67,697 teachers lacked a graduate degree in the subject.
These figures do not prove that every teacher without a relevant degree is ineffective, nor does a degree guarantee teaching competence. However, the scale of the mismatch raises fundamental questions about the quality of classroom instruction.
English and mathematics are not merely examination subjects. They shape students’ ability to communicate, solve problems, access knowledge and pursue further education.
Weak English proficiency can restrict higher education and employment opportunities, while inadequate mathematical understanding undermines learning in science, technology and economics. Difficulties in these subjects therefore extend beyond examination results.
Assigning a geography teacher to teach mathematics or a mathematics teacher to conduct English classes illustrates the institutional weaknesses involved. Such arrangements may sometimes be unavoidable, but they should not become substitutes for effective recruitment and deployment.
A committed, experienced teacher may still lack the specialised knowledge and pedagogical preparation needed to teach an unfamiliar subject effectively.
Insufficient professional training compounds the problem. Available statistics indicate that a substantial proportion of secondary teachers lack recognised professional qualifications, including education degrees and professional training. Subject knowledge and teaching ability are related but distinct.
Knowing English does not automatically mean knowing how to teach grammar, comprehension, writing and speaking to students with different learning needs.
Mathematical proficiency alone does not equip teachers to identify misconceptions or explain abstract concepts effectively.
Financial hardship, child labour and early marriage undoubtedly disrupt education.
The Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board investigated 1,350 candidates absent from the 2025 SSC examination and found that approximately 41 percent were married. Of those married candidates, 97 percent were female students.
Although this group cannot explain the national enrolment decline, it demonstrates how social pressures interrupt education. For girls, continued schooling often competes with expectations surrounding marriage, domestic responsibilities and family honour.
The Covid-19 pandemic may also have lasting consequences. Prolonged school closures disrupted learning, and students who fell behind may have struggled to recover. However, the pandemic cannot remain a permanent explanation for educational weaknesses.
If learning deficits persist years after classrooms reopened, policymakers must examine whether schools can identify struggling students and help them catch up.
The decline in technical and vocational enrolment presents another challenge. Bangladesh aims to raise participation in technical and vocational education to 30 percent by 2030. Yet enrolment in independent institutions fell from more than 676,000 in 2024 to approximately 650,000 in 2025.
Vocational education must offer credible career pathways, modern equipment, competent instructors and relevant skills. Expanding institutions through targets alone will achieve little if students perceive vocational qualifications as inferior to conventional academic credentials.
The same principle applies to general education. Building schools and announcing enrolment targets are visible achievements. Improving classroom instruction, recruiting subject specialists, monitoring learning and addressing household economic pressures require sustained investment and administrative coordination. They also demand a willingness to confront uncomfortable evidence.
The government should commission an independent, district-level investigation into declining secondary enrolment, distinguishing actual dropouts from transfers, migration and demographic changes.
Findings should be published transparently. Schools should track student attendance and progression, with appropriate privacy safeguards, so prolonged absences trigger timely interventions rather than remain unnoticed until public examinations expose the problem.
Teacher recruitment and deployment must reflect subject requirements. Authorities should identify vacancies in English, mathematics and science school by school, prioritising qualified teachers for underserved areas.
Where immediate recruitment is impossible, structured subject-specific training and mentoring can provide temporary support. However, these measures must not justify indefinitely assigning teachers to subjects beyond their expertise. Professional development should be evaluated through improvements in classroom practice, not merely attendance at training sessions.
Finally, educational accountability must extend beyond infrastructure and examination statistics. Policymakers should assess whether students can read critically, write coherently, reason mathematically and apply knowledge independently.
They must investigate why some schools retain students while others lose them, why families seek alternatives and whether public institutions meet disadvantaged children’s needs.
Bangladesh’s educational strength cannot be measured by counting schools while ignoring departing students, teachers struggling outside their expertise and children completing years of schooling without mastering essential skills. The enrolment decline is not merely a statistical anomaly; it is an opportunity to reconsider educational priorities.
(The writer is an Academic, Journalist, and Political Analyst based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Currently he teaches at IUBAT. He can be reached at
nazmulalam.rijohn@gmail.com)
