NAEM

The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh enjoins upon the Government of Bangladesh the obligation to ensure literacy of all the citizens of the country within the shortest possible time. The Constitution mandates the state to adopt effective measures for:

establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such stage as may be determined by law (article 17)

relating education to the needs of society and producing properly trained and motivated citizens to serve those needs (article 17)

removing illiteracy within such time as may be determined by law (article 17)

The focus of government on education as enunciated in different policies and Five Year Plan documents are :

Value based education in the light of the Constitution

Emphasis on job-oriented and need-based education

Modernization of curriculum in line with the needs of a world knowledge economy

Ensuring efficient management of the delivery of public and private sector education services at all levels

Strengthening the Information and Communication Technology

Ensuring teacher effectiveness at all levels

Revitalizing technical and vocational education

Ensuring gender parity at all levels of education

Education in Bangladesh has three major stages-, primary, secondary and higher education. Primary education is a 5-year cycle while secondary education is a 7-year one with three sub-stages: 3 years of junior secondary, 2 years of secondary and 2 years of higher secondary. The entry age for primary is 6 years. The junior secondary, secondary and higher secondary stages are designed for age groups 1-13, 14-15 and 16-17 years. Higher secondary is followed by baccalaureate level education in general, technical, technology and medical streams requiring 5-6 years to obtain a Master's degree. In the general education stream, higher secondary is followed by college/university level education through the Pass/Honors Bachelor Degree Courses (3/4 years). The Master's Degree is of one year's duration for holders of Bachelor Degree (Honors) and two years duration for holders of (Pass) Bachelor Degree. Higher education in the technical area also starts after higher secondary level. Engineering, agriculture, business, medical and Information & Communication are the major technical and technological education areas. In each of the courses of study, except for medical education, students are required to complete a 4-year course work while for medical education, a 5-year course of study is required for the first degree.

Primary level education is provided under two major institutional arrangements (stream)- general & madrasa, while secondary education has three major streams: general, technical-vocational and madrassa. Higher education, likewise, has 3 streams: general (inclusive of pure and applied science, arts, business and social science), madrassa and technology education, Technology education, in its turn, includes agriculture, engineering, medical, textile, leather technology and ICT. Madrasas (Arabic for educational institution), functioning parallel to the three major stages, have similar core courses as in the general stream (primary, secondary and post-secondary) but have additional emphasis on religious studies.

There are 3 main types of primary level institutions in the country. These are (i) government primary schools (owned, funded and managed by the government) (ii) partially publicly funded non-government primary schools and (iii) wholly privately funded primary schools (include kindergartens, NGO schools, community schools etc.). The primary level madrassas are known as Ebtedayee madrassas.

Post-primary education in the general stream is imparted by junior secondary schools (grade 6-8), senior secondary schools (grade 6-10) and higher secondary schools, known as Intermediate Colleges (grade 11-12). Many higher secondary schools also offer courses leading to Baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts and sciences. Institutions containing grades 1-12 (primary to higher secondary) are few in number. Post primary level madrassas are known as Dakhil madrassa (grades 6-10), Alim madrasahs (gradesll-12).

At the secondary level there is a separate stream for imparting technical-vocational education and training. After completing the junior secondary level, students may enter into Vocational Training Institutes for 2-year SSC (vocational) courses and after having SSC Vocational/SSC (science) they may enter into Vocational Training Institutes (VTI), Polytechnic Institutes for 2-year HSC (Vocational)/ 3-year Dip-in-Engineering courses. Technical and vocational forms an important stream of secondary education. The institutions in this stream include Polytechnics, VTI, Commercial institutes, Technical Training Center, Textile Vocational Center, Agriculture Training Institute and others.

Tertiary education, meant and designed for the post higher secondary (18-23 age group) students comprise a 3-year Pass course or a 4-year honors course (in the general stream) for Baccalaureate Degree followed by a 2-year and 1-year Master's course for pass graduates and honors graduates, respectively. Except for studies in the field of medicine, which requires the completion of a 5-year course of study for graduation, Baccalaureate degrees in the fields of engineering, agriculture, textile and leather technology require the completion of 4-year courses of studies.

There are several institutions for imparting education and training leading to the award of non-Baccalaureate certificates as well as degrees for teachers at different levels of the education system. There are 54 public sector Primary Training Institutes (PTIs) which offer 1-year Certificate in Education (C-in-Ed) course for the teachers at the primary schools. There are 11 public and 54 private sector Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) offering 1-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) courses and 1-year M.Ed Courses for the teachers of the secondary level schools. Bangladesh Open University (BOU) also offers B.Ed, course through distance education mode. The Institute of Education & Research (IER) of Dhaka University offers 4- year courses leading Baccalaureate degree with honors in education, followed by 1 -year Master of Education course, as well post-graduate studies leading to M.Phil and Ph.D in Education. Higher Secondary Teachers Training Institutes (HSTTIs) conduct in-service training for both the secondary school and college teachers. For the technical-vocational stream, there are Vocational Teacher Training Institutes (VTTIs) offering 1-year courses for the teachers of VTls. There is also a Technical Teachers' Training College (TTTC) which conduct training Courses for the teachers of Polytechnic Institutes. Madrassa Training Institute located at Gazipur is responsible for Madrasha teachers training.

National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) for Teacher Education and Management Development

The National Academy for Educational Management is an apex institution under the Ministry of Education. The ultimate objective of NAEM is to ensure quality education at the post-primary levels of education through ensuring quality management and administration of education. The main function of NAEM are to cinduct foundation training for the officers of the BCS Education Cadre, to undertake research to assist the government in the formulation of education policy and programs. Under the Teacher Quality Improvement Project the Govt. has a plan to strengthen NAEM as a Teacher Education Authority (TEA) covering all the teacher training institutes under an umbrella training program.