Not to be trapped with historicism, but the discussion on the reform in the education sector in Bangladesh can only be possible with an understanding of its history. It is essential to thoroughly study the history of education before colonialism and the impact of British rule for over a century. This historical insight can be juxtaposed with an analysis of coloniality within the present-day education delivery in Bangladesh.
The Indus civilization of ancient India, from 2500-1500 BC, was skilled in many areas, including written language, arts and crafts, architecture, design, ecology, civic and administrative codes, trade and commerce, and mathematics. Education played a significant role in shaping an individual’s overall growth and development. Its purpose was not merely limited to imparting knowledge and information but extended to promoting self-confidence, self-restraint, ethics, character and personality formation, and social efficiency. Moreover, it eliminated discriminatory attitudes and fostered good judgment, which was essential for leading a successful and fulfilling life.
Ancient Indian education emphasized objective knowledge and secular needs, including conserving ancestral traditions, coding customs, and reporting on social conventions. Chantal Crozet (2012) writes and explains ancient Indian education, “Grammar and poetics, logic, astronomy, astrology, geometry, arithmetic and medicine were amongst the most valued forms of worldly knowledge.” Education in ancient times was comprehensive as it covered both physical and spiritual aspects of an individual. It included teachings on religion and spirituality to provide holistic knowledge to the learner.
The ancient Indian gurukul system required students to live with their teachers, even in remote forests or mountainous terrain. This aspect of their accommodation, where the teacher and the student were near each other, was most important for developing their relationship. The Gurukuls were one of the earliest forms of public schools supported by public donations.
At that time, knowledge was apprehended in India as something beyond the five senses since education for transformation requires education of the inner self and subjective knowledge. The Brahmanical instruction curriculum at the time, described by the Brahmin poets, involved the study of vyakaran, abhidhan, nyaya, and alankara shastra in schools.
During the Islamic era, educational institutions in India comprised traditional madrasas and maktabs. Even during British rule, the Provincial Committee of Bengal of the Indian Education Commission (1882) acknowledged that every mosque in India had an educational center. These establishments imparted knowledge on various subjects such as grammar, philosophy, mathematics, and law. The madrasas’ curriculum consisted of two books on grammar, two on logic, two on astronomy and mathematics, and five on mysticism and religious knowledge. Under the reign of the great Mughal ruler Akbar, the education system was inclusive, offering additional courses on medicine, agriculture, geography, and texts from other languages and religions, such as Patanjali’s work in Sanskrit. The scientific community during this period was influenced by the ideas of Aristotle, Bhaskaras II, Charka, and Ibn Sina.
India’s traditional education system came under scrutiny at the hands of its British rulers. In 1835, the British ruler appointed William Adam to assess indigenous institutions. Adam’s research uncovered roughly 100,000 schools in Bengal and Bihar, each operated by a single teacher known as a Guru. Students utilized the Shubhankar text for arithmetic, while Sabda Subanta and Asta Sabdi were used to teach elementary grammar. Moral values were instilled through the Sanskritic verses like Chanakya’s and many others. The surveyors of the British government found valuable knowledge being taught in indigenous schools. Nevertheless, they concluded that traditional education before British colonization lacked scientific elements in the curriculum. The colonial rulers of Bengal expressed their opinion on the education systems, stating that they were deficient in terms of “moral instruction” and “useful knowledge,” even though there was evidence to suggest otherwise.
Developing clerical classes within the Indian population to serve as administrators and supporters of imperialism was the British Raj’s covert objective in imposing English education in colonial India. Thomas Babington Macaulay, Secretary to the Board of Control 1831, who was responsible for “civilizing indigenous”, said in rhetoric, “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern –a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” He added, “To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
The minority ‘Orientalists’ in Britain who sought to revive India’s ancient culture through its traditional learned classes could have promoted their arguments more effectively. The ‘Anglicists’ emerged victorious by advocating for the introduction of so-called ‘modern science’ to transform what they perceived as a ‘stagnant culture’. Macaulay’s vision had produced an elite class of Anglicised Indians and a larger mass of ‘clerical workers’ with limited prospects.
The Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon identifies this phenomenon as a civilized form of violence or cultural injuries, like institutionalizing the ruler’s language in schools and ingraining children’s minds in a colony with the colonizer’s culture.
In Bengal, the spread of publicly run Western-style mass education was initially prompted by missionaries’ influence. There was a crucial societal shift in history during the 19th and early 20th century when the Protestants championed the cause of widespread education in their respective nations with the aim of “civilizing” the working class. This endeavor also extended to their colonies, and the so-called ‘altruistic’ notion of ‘universal education’ garnered backing from rulers, benefiting both colonized subjects overseas and the working-class populace in an empire like Britain. The British government started to fund on a limited scale to elementary education in India. In addition to providing Anglicized mass education, higher education was intended to foster a sense of national identity in the form of colonial citizenship.
In the colonial era, affluent Indians took it upon themselves to establish private schools and institutions without funding from the British government. Their unwavering commitment in providing education for their children led to the creation of institutions that closely followed the English education model, with English pedagogy and curriculum being the sole means of achieving modernization. This approach of privatized English education has persisted in post-colonial Pakistan and Bangladesh, and has yet to encounter any noteworthy opposition.
Within the Subcontinent, the disparity between government-supported formal education, which is under-resourced and adheres to colonial norms, and privately-funded modern English education for the affluent has led to significant illiteracy rates. The education system passed down to the region primarily caters to job opportunities, generating compliant citizens while encouraging post-colonial patriotism.
Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet whose lyrics are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India, stated the core of the vision of Indian education. “Our link to the reality of the world is of three kinds: the connection made by the intellect, the connection arising out of need, and the connection found in joy.” (From the speech delivered by Tagore at the National Council for Education and first published in 1907). He elaborates, “This [Indian education] is not mere knowledge, as science is, but it is a perception of the soul by the soul. This does not lead us to power, as knowledge does, but it gives us joy, which is the product of the union of kindred things.”
Tagore, however, eloquently expressed the idea of what could be decolonized education delivery by criticizing the then newly imposed colonial education in his writing, “The education we get does not match the lifestyle of ours, the urge for improvement of our home is not there in our books.” He further adds, “This [English] education can never overcome our shortcomings in life. This education is miles apart from the roots of our life.” Tagore addressed the challenges associated with conventional and colonized education by implementing innovative educational practices in his institutions at Santiniketan.
In the ancient Indian education system, knowledge had been divided into two streams: paravidya—the higher knowledge, the spiritual wisdom—and aparavidya—the lower knowledge, the secular sciences. Moreover, as Tagore mentioned, there is another stream, “the doctrine of deliverance that Buddha preached was the freedom from the thralldom of Avidyā. Avidyā is the ignorance that darkens our consciousness and tends to limit it within the boundaries of our personal self.”
In ancient Bengal, the prevailing philosophy of education aspired to connect knowledge to practical life, work, and personal fulfillment rather than purely spiritual pursuits. Tagore championed this traditional Indian educational model in his various essays, speeches, and correspondences, advocating for it over the educational approach imposed by colonial powers.
The ancient system of the scholastic tradition of meditation, Smarta (Puranic), mental mathematics, medical science-ayurvedic, sadhana including asana, pranayama, and also the education on nature was replaced, according to Dutta (2022) by a “curriculum of prescribed learning” by the colonial ruler.
Whereas both Vedic and Buddhist systems of education had different subjects of study. The Vedic system comprised ritualistic knowledge, metrics, exegetics (interpretation of scriptures), grammar, phonetics and astronomy; the Upanishads included logic and reasoning, history and more. The Subjects common to Buddhism and Vedic were law, arithmetic, performing arts, ethics, architecture, trading accounts, economics, state-craft, military science and many more. The ancient Indian education system had 64 art forms to be imparted through teaching. In brief, the ancient Indian education system catered to both spirituality and real-life skills, which were infused with the intention for salvation and final bliss or ecstasy of life enjoyed, parallel with complete physical development.
The Eastern and Western cultures have different approaches to cultivating the soul and practical life in their educational systems. The Eastern system of teaching values both theory and practical application, just like the Indian tradition. This approach is beneficial in real-life situations and can be applied in personal and professional contexts. This system develops a versatile skill set in individuals by emphasizing both aspects.
The introduction of colonial education in Bangladesh aimed to produce clerks and professional groups required for running the colonial administration and trade. Although Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan and Pakistan gained independence earlier from British rule, the education system based on Western colonial models remains untouched.
To understand education in Bengal before colonization, writings of nationalist thinkers such as Gandhi and Vivekananda, Bose, along with Tagore, can be conferred. These sources may provide valuable insights into the ancient and indigenous educational systems of present-day Bangladesh.
In the past, the education system in Bengal was comprehensive, encompassing guru-based instruction and religious institutions. Readings of scholars like Poromesh Acharya may reveal this with evidence, verstehen, and analyses.
Bangladesh nationalized 26,000 primary schools after gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. The government declared that education would be compulsory, secular, and modernized. Another turn happened in 1976; military rulers encouraged expanding religious education. From the ’80s, Bangladesh experienced increased funding for Madrasahs, while in the ‘90s, teachers’ unions gained more power through patronage and bargaining. At the same time, Bangladesh entered into the global (new-imperial) policy regime of Universal Primary Education in the ‘90s.
Despite controversy and paradoxical implications, the Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1990 led to the privatization and Islamization of education and the expansion of public institutions on a large scale. Since the installation of the election and bi-party government in 1990, all subsequent governments have prioritized creating access to education through incentives and infrastructure, increasing the number of teachers, and incorporating national history and identity into the curriculum, although with varying versions of national histories.
Bangladesh achieved tremendous success in creating 100 percent access for all children in primary education and earned gender parity. Bangladesh is running a show now with the world’s most expanded public education sector, considering the numbers of schools, teachers and students. However, a few Bangladeshis but expatriate researchers referred to this trend as a “holy alliance” of support for Madrasahs and expanding access to education for poor girls, significantly contributing to the system’s rapid expansion. A few researchers mentioned that non-governmental organizations’ non-formal schools also played a role in expanding access to schooling in Bangladesh. It will be a tall list of tasks that the political governments did, including building schools, deploying teachers, provisioning zero fee, free textbooks, school meals, stipends and much more.
Recently Bangladesh has been criticized for low quality of education at all levels, particularly for the poor communities. This issue is common in many least-developed and developing countries, where although more children are completing primary education, most struggle to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Bangladesh ranks 112th out of 138 countries on the Global Knowledge Index 2020 (UNDP, 2020) by the United Nations Development Program and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation. Bangladesh scored below the global average in primary education, with a score of only 35.9. In pre-university education, Bangladesh ranked 117th, scoring only 43.9. In the higher education sector, Bangladesh is ranked 129th, with a score of 24.1. (UNDP 2020)
It is commendable that Bangladesh has made significant strides in promoting education among its populace. However, there remains an urgent need to improve the quality of education delivery within the country. This would undoubtedly lead to the development of a more resilient and well-informed society capable of addressing the challenges the modern world poses.
The government has put in place a uniform approach to encourage students and their families by offering complimentary textbooks, school lunches, universal allowances, and various other rewards. Furthermore, there is a notable endeavor to enhance infrastructure. Although the state aims to establish a standardized curriculum, there exist different types of educational systems, including Madrasa, English medium, and government-run schools, that coexist. Private initiatives serve the urban middle class while the wealthy can access education abroad or in ‘foreign enclaves’.
There is another type of colonialism present within national settings these days. Bijoy Barua states, “Cultural homogenisation through the establishment of a centralized and standardized curriculum in education has become the dominant model in Bangladesh today, a model of education deeply rooted in the colonial legacy of materialism, acquisitiveness, and social exclusion. The human capital approach indoctrinates learners into the urban-based economic growth model with the financial and technical assistance of bilateral and multilateral donors in the country.” When studying the cultural marginalization of Buddhists in the Bangladesh education system, Barua confronts this.
Mrinal Debnath (2020) found similar results when studying the alienation of the Santal minority group in Bangladesh from the government’s formal and standardized education system. In this rural context, these alien ideologies and practices in education are actively engaged in eliminating local institutions, the knowledge system of indigenous peoples, the texture of their lives, their joy of living, their spirituality and their sense of being.”
Sudipta Kaviraj (2014) has excellently explained this bias, “Ironically, for some, the relation with the West is still most significant; Western certificates are still of the highest value, and therefore Western approval or disapproval is a matter of special exultation or mortification.” During the colonial era, many Bengali elites favored implementing Western education, emphasizing modern values like ‘productivity’ and ‘civility’.
Jana Tschurenev (2019), a policy analyst, argues that unquestioningly adopting colonial education is the initial step in transnational education projects such as donor-funded initiatives for universal primary education or the education objectives of MDGs and SDGs, which claim to provide universal education rights and promoting universal access. In addition, the global model of standardized higher education continues today under neoliberal economic projects and the agenda of ‘human capital’ development, promoting the global flow of skills based on the global division of labor.
Ideas on the importance of universal primary education spread globally and impacted national leaders and policies through aid initiatives and international conferences like the 1990 Jomtien Conference on Education for All (EFA). These EFAs culminated in MDG and SDGs. A global framework based on rights has been established to promote educational access, equity, and accountability through monitoring. This approach has shifted the focus away from prioritizing efficiency, relevance and rate of return at the national level. Instead, it encourages the expansion of formal schooling and private universities worldwide. The roots of these transnational projects under the neo-liberalism and rights framework can be traced back to the Western education dumped by colonial powers in their dominions, colonies, or chartered company areas.
The current education system of Bangladesh at all levels heavily emphasizes Western philosophies and adopts Eurocentric teaching methods. The predominant language used in the global education model is English, and the curriculum follows Anglo-American templates. Bangladesh is not an exception. It is essential to acknowledge that this system results from the Western-centric geopolitical power structure and originates in the history of colonialism.
The current global education model has two primary mechanisms at work. The first involves non-western countries importing programs, curricula, materials, and even human resources from the West. The second mechanism involves a flow of international students, skilled professionals, and semi-skilled workers from the East to the West. These interactions take place through advanced business agreements and also through learning from the colonial days and successes of colonizing minds and labors.
Shibao Guo & Yan Guo (2020) reiterate that “……critical scholars question internationalization as the dominant global imaginary and its colonial myth of Western ontological and epistemological supremacy.” According to Shahjahan (2011), postcolonial studies on education and development have shown that Western colonization has had an impact on education, resulting in an emphasis on individualism over collectivism, a Western-centric view of history, and a preference for Western science over indigenous knowledge.
Robin Shields (2013) notes that donor organizations tend to place blame on schools for the lack of quality education and then shift their attention (on tension) from central to local levels. This perpetuates a pattern of colonial domination that originates from the global epicenter and trickles down to the local level, creating a power dynamic that can harm the education system. Addressing these underlying issues is crucial to establishing a more equitable and effective education system that benefits all students, regardless of their background or location.
Linda Tuhiwai Smith, a prominent Maori scholar, has coined the term “Imperial Eyes” to describe the institutionalized practices of the education system. This term refers to the manner in which colonial powers have historically imposed their cultural values and beliefs onto indigenous communities, often through the education system. Such practices have had a profound impact on the way these communities view themselves and the world around them and continue to shape their experiences today (Kellner & Gennaro, 2022).
The policy environment of Bangladesh needs to acknowledge this method of plurality; instead, both the donors and government pursue the singular global model of neo-liberal and positivist stance. This can also be termed ‘embedded policy coherence’ between donors and the government, which is the denial of declonization agenda and accommodating vernacular but diversified pedagogy and curriculum. It can be considered as a managed convergence between donors and government. Bangladesh’s education policies have been influenced by centuries of colonialism and currently align with (so-called) rights-based, (national) economy-determined, and (international) market-oriented technical reductionism.
Renowned scholars, including Foucault, Gayatri, and Fanon, argue that addressing “decolonization as epistemological reconstitution” is crucial before attempting to decolonize any education system. Adhering to a decolonial viewpoint can foster an approach to educational policy that embodies love, striving towards promoting social justice and inclusive practices. In contrast, the unfortunate gift of colonial education is the ‘exclusionary nature of knowledge and ways of knowing’ and the absence of ‘contexts’ (Leonardo & Singh, 2017).
Scholars such as Connell and Dei champion counterhegemonic methods that aim to undermine the Eurocentric knowledge that dominates our society. These alternative approaches have the power to upend the existing structures of knowledge production and foster meaningful change by celebrating the unique and valuable perspectives of historically overlooked and marginalized communities.
Moreover, through an examination of the ideas put forth by Fanon, we can gain a deeper understanding of how the systematic exclusion of certain groups based on factors like gender, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status from access to quality education perpetuates the same kind of colonial violence that has suppressed them throughout history.
To conduct a comprehensive evaluation of educational policies, it is imperative to factor in the influence of colonialism on knowledge generation. Educational and policy-making processes can perpetuate power disparities between colonizing and colonized parties. Therefore, a conceptual framework that recognizes such dynamics is essential for dismantling colonial structures in education policy analysis.
When considering the concept of decolonizing education, it is imperative to recognize that there often needs to be a better interpretation of its meaning. While some individuals may believe that simply incorporating more diverse materials into the curriculum is sufficient, Khoo et al. (2020) argue that this approach only scratches the surface. The true significance lies in critically assessing the methods of obtaining knowledge and skills. This necessitates exploring alternate sources of information and pathways to knowledge that may have been disregarded due to existing power structures and spatial limitations.
Critical reflection is essential in cultivating a comprehensive understanding of the world around us. Decoloniality involves contesting, deconstructing, and triumphing over knowledge systems perpetuating global inequalities and injustices. Education has shifted its focus from cultivating critical thinking to prioritizing “cognitive” skills for job training. This inconsistency in policy objectives regarding the purpose of education becomes more ‘coherent’ in its implementation when Western donors and investors collaborate with local policy elites. Bangladesh is no exception.
To achieve the critical goal of decolonizing education, restructuring the education system is paramount. This includes changes to the hierarchy, learning objectives, and teaching methods.. Teachers should have more control over their evaluations. A practical solution requires reviving traditional knowledge and practices that were previously ignored and undervalued. Although some of this knowledge may have been deemed unimportant, it is still relevant and necessary. However, the current power structures often suppress this knowledge, making it challenging to include it in a comprehensive reform plan. Nonetheless, including this overlooked knowledge is essential to creating a more inclusive and effective solution.
Successful decolonization efforts can be observed in countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Latin American nations. Some states have integrated local pedagogies, such as traditional practices related to health, well-being, or artisan training, to challenge colonial epistemology. However, these initiatives often encounter power dynamics, are less visible, and are dismissed as weak or ‘mystical’. They are frequently viewed as representing only a lower level of traditional skills, necessitating active efforts to transform these policy perceptions. Despite these challenges, Bangladesh has little alternative but to move away from its colonial roots in order to reinvigorate its education system.
