‘Decay’ in education too deep to fix with a commission, says Advisor Wahiduddin

He urges fixing fundamental issues from the ground up before expecting improvement

Bangladesh’s education system has “decayed” so severely that forming commissions alone will not improve it, Planning Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud has said.

He told a conference in Dhaka on Wednesday that only basic reforms at fundamental levels can restore the system.

“At the moment, the situation is so bad that if we form an education commission and ask a few people to improve it, I do not think it will help,” he said.

He added, “Education has decayed so much that unless we fix some basic broken parts from the ground up, putting a few people in charge will not achieve anything. What do you think about education? Commissions alone cannot deliver results.”

Wahiduddin, who once served as education advisor, said 55 public universities were left “without proper oversight” when his tenure began.

He questioned whether education commissions could have resolved such issues, noting the urgent need to make them operational within three months while also addressing daily protests.

“Putting a few very knowledgeable people in a position and telling them to ‘improve the education system’ only embarrasses them,” he said.

“Three education commissions have already been formed in Bangladesh, and I have their reports. We do not implement those recommendations. Could a new commission provide anything better or make the system more contemporary? That remains uncertain.”

Wahiduddin observed a “type of mental unrest” among young people, attributing it to the violence and deaths of relatives during the July movement.

“There has been a moral and social awakening among the youth following the Uprising. Some of them will enter politics. We hope that this new generation will produce capable leadership,” he said.