IN BANGLADESH
A situation analysis
M NAZMUL HAQ
Institute of Education and Research
University of Dhaka
Bangladesh
and
M. SAJIDUL ISLAM
Consultant, Quality Education
for All Team
Dhaka,
Bangladesh
December 2005
Dhaka,
Bangladesh
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
ACRONYMS iv
1.
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Study objectives and
methodology 1
1.2 Prioritising education 1
1.3 The schooling system 2
2. MOTIVATION LEVELS AND
PATTERNS 4
3.
KEY DETERMINANTS OF MOTIVATION
6
3.1 Teacher competence 6
3.2 Teacher management 7
3.3 Working conditions 9
3.4 Standard of living 10
4.
IMPACT ON TEACHER PERFORMANCE
13
Teacher recruitment 13
Teacher deployment 14
Teacher attendance 15
Teacher behaviour 16
Learning outcomes 18
5.
RECOMMENDATIONS 21
APPENDIX 1 People
Interviewed/Discussed 23
APPENDIX 2 National Pay Scales
and Teachers’ Salaries.. 25
APPENDIX 3 Teachers’
Allowances 28
REFERENCES
Tables
Table 1.1 Students and
teachers at primary and secondary schools (rounded ‘000) 2
Table 3.1 Total gross monthly
incomes of
teachers at government primary
and
secondary schools, January
2005 11
Table 3.2 Real income trends
for trained
government teachers (starting
salaries) 11
Table 3.3 Conditions of
service for t
eachers at government and
registered
non-government schools 14
Table 4.1 Primary teacher student
ratio 14
Table 4.2 Qualification
profile of teachers 14
Table 4.3 Teacher absenteeism
rates, March 2005 15
Table 4.4 Reasons for teacher
absences 18
Table 4.5 Primary school
enrolment, learning achievement and literacy, 2005 19
Table 4.6 Distribution of
teachers by
type of school and gender 19
Box
Box
4.1 Title? 17
Appendix Tables
Table A2.1 National Pay
Scales, 1985-2005 25
Table A2.2 Teachers’ salary
scale 27
Table A3.1 Teacher allowances
28
Table A3.2 Tiffin allowances for teachers 28
Table A3.3 House rent
allowance calculation (applicable only to government
teachers/employees) 29
Table A3.4 Types of
institutions by nu
mber of teachers and students
30
Table A4.5 Primary teacher sa
laries since 1990 31
Table A3.6 Secondary teacher
sa
laries since 1990 32
ACRONYMS
AHT Assistant Head Teacher
AT Assistant Teacher
BANBEIS Bangladesh Bureau of Educ
ational Information and
Statistics
BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BEd Bachelor of Education
BISE Boards of Intermediate
and Secondary Education
BNFE Bureau of Non-formal
Education
C-in-ED Certificate in
Education
CPEIMU
Compulsory Primary Education
Implementation Monitoring Unit
COM
Community School
Dip-in Ed Diploma in Education
DM Dahl Marsha
DPE Directorate
of Primary Education
DSHE Directorate of Sec
ondary and Higher Education
EB Efficiency Bar
After successful completion of
7
years of service then s/he is
eligible for EB and any one
cross
the EB then H/S will get Tk.
5-10
more as a yearly increment.
EM Ebtedayee Madrasha
EMIS Educational Manageme
nt Information System
GOB Government
of Bangladesh
GPS Government Primary School
GSS Government Secondary School
H/AMAD High Madrasha Attached
EM
H/APS High School Atta
ched Primary School
HSC Higher Seconda
ry Certificate
HT Head Teacher
JSS Junior Secondary
School
KG Kindergarten
MEd Masters of Education
MOE Ministry of Education
MOPME Ministry of Prim
ary and Mass Education
MPO Monthly Payment Order
NAPE National Academy for Primary Education
NGO Non Government
Organization
NGO School NGO ru
n full Primary School
NGPS Non Government Non
Registered Primary School
NGSS Non Governme
nt Secondary School
PTA Parent Teacher Association
PTI Exp.
Primary Training Institute
attached Primary School
Section
RNGPS Registered Non G
overnment Pr
imary School
SMC School Manage
ment Committee
SSC Secondary School Certificate
TK Taka (Banglad
eshi Currency)
YI Yearly Increment
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 STUDY OBJECTIVES
AND METHODOLOGY
This paper summarises the key
findings and
recommendations of a
review of teacher
motivation and incentives in
Bangladesh, focusing in part
icular on primary schools.
Teacher motivation is a subj
ect, which has not receiv
ed much attention from
educational researchers or aut
horities in Bangladesh, yet it plays a
critically important
role in achieving educational
goals. Th
e paper first assesses current
levels and
patterns of teacher motivation
and then examines some of the
key determinants of
teacher motivation including
workload,
class size, professional
development,
management and pay.
The analysis draws mainly on
secondary data
. Teachers’ feelings
about and reactions
to professional contexts are
widely documented in newspapers, and educational
reports. However,
key stakeholders
were also interviewed in
order to
obtain their
views about teacher motiva
tion and incentives.
Confidential, semi-structured
interviews were conducted with
three
primary school teachers, three
government
officials responsible for
primary and sec
ondary education, one
school manager, one
senior manager form an educati
on NGO and two with
parents.
1.2 PRIORITISING EDUCATION
With a population of
130 million, Banglade
sh has one of the la
rgest primary school
systems in the world.
Development of pr
imary education poses
a daunting challenge
because of inaccessibility and
resource cons
traints. However, remarkable
progress has
been achieved and the gross
enrolment ra
te is now 97 percent.
When Bangladesh
became independent in
1971, it inherited an
outdated education sy
stem developed by
Pakistan suit its own socio-economic and pol
itical needs. Bangladesh’s
leaders were
burdened with the enormous a
nd difficult responsibility of
educating the people of a
war-torn, devastated, and poor
nation. The nation, however,
with its inspired freedom-
movement, pledged to meet th
e responsibility of educati
ng all of its citizens.
The new Constitution
establishe
d education as a right of
every individual and made
the government responsi
ble for providing public
educatio
n for the first five grades.
Furthermore, the constitution
states that:
“The State shall adopt
effective
measures for the purpose of
(a)
establishing a uniform,
mass-oriented
and universal system of education
and extending free and
compulsory e
ducation to all children to
such
stage as may be determined by
law;
(b) relating education to the
needs of
the society and producing
properly tr
ained and motivated
citizens to
serve those needs; and (c
) removing illiteracy w
ithin such time as may
be determined by law.”
1
1
Constitution of Bangladesh, Government of Bangladesh (1973).
In order to fulfil this
obligation nationali
sed all private and lo
cally operated primary
schools) in 1973. As a result,
157,724 t
eachers in 36,165 school
s became government
employees. Over the next four
decades, th
e government has implemented
five Five-
Year Plans and two Two-Year
Plans, whic
h have significantly
improved education
provision. These improvements
have, however
, focused mainly on
infrastructure,
curriculum and teaching-
learning materials.
1.3 THE SCHOOLING SYSTEM
There are 78,000 primary a
nd 16,000 secondary schools in
Bangladesh (see Table
1.1). The Directorate
of Primary Education in the
Mini
stry of Education is entirely
responsible for the manageme
nt and supervision of form
al primary education. The
DPE employs 162,000 t
eachers, equips an
d maintains close
to 37,800 government
primary schools, supports
(through subvent
ions) 21,300 non-government
and over
5,000
madrasah
(religious) schools, and
maintains an administra
tive infrastructure
from the head office in Dhaka down to
each school. The
DPE has three main
administrative tiers,
namely division, district
and upazila. The key functional
responsibilities of the DPE
include construction, curricu
lum development, textbook
distribution, in-servi
ce training, recruitment, and
teacher postings and transfers.
Table 1.1: Students and
teachers at primary and secondary schools (rounded ‘000)
2
Number
schools
Teachers Students
Total Female Total Female
Primary
Government Non-
government
Other
Total
38
21
19
78
62
85
73
220
61
25
30
115
10,830
4,463
2,365
17,658
5,364
2,201
1,104
8,669
Secondary
Non-government
junior secondary
Government
secondary
Non-government
secondary
Total
3
0.3
13
16
32.3
21
7
155
183
366
3
2
24
30
59
732
221
6,933
7,887
15773
439
101
3,655
4,196
8391
Each upazila has an Upazila
Education
Officer and several
Assistant Upazila
Education Officers who are re
sponsible for school supe
rvision and academic support
to teachers. Each AUEO is
supposed to su
pervise 20-30 schools, but
in reality they
have to visit over 70 schools.
An AUEO is expected to
make at least 10 visits a
month, which is difficult to
achieve given th
eir other duties.
3
On average, each school
is visited every thr
ee to four months, although
studies
show that some schools are
2
Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Statistics (BANBEIS).
3
The AUEO is given Tk. 200 per
month for meeting the expenses related to his/her school
supervisions. This amount does
not reflect the actual cost of supervisions.
visited by an AUEO only on
ce a year. Visits are largely
AUEO’s inspections and not
to provide support. Other of
ficials have even
fewer opportunities
to conduct school
visits. None of the primary
schools have an office
secretar
y, an orderly or even a
cleaner or sweeper. Office
maintenance a
nd cleaning instead a
dd to teachers’ non-
teaching related
workload.
A large and growing number of
schools ar
e run by non-governme
nt organisations,
which have well-conceived lear
ning strategies that help ch
ildren to become literate
and numerate. NGOs are
particul
arly active in the delivery
of primary education to the
most economically disadvan
taged children. They enro
l more than two million
students and have
adopted innovativ
e approaches and
teaching methods.
Class sizes in
NGO schools are generally kept
to 30-33 st
udents. Passing rates
in these schools are
close to 100 percent. Teachers
at these sc
hools are less qualified, but
they are more
closely supervised.
Government funds all expendi
tures in government schools
and pays for 70-90 percent
of teacher salary costs in non-government
registered schools.
The government also
makes grants to non-government
schools fo
r the repair of school
buildings.
Government and non-government
registered school
s receive free te
xtbooks. NGOs are
responsible for providing th
eir own textbooks and
other learning mate
rials, which are
distributed free of cost.
2. MOTIVATION LEVELS AND
PATTERNS
The overwhelming consensus
from bot
h the secondary doc
umentation and the
interviews is that overall
levels of
teacher job satisfaction and
motivation in
Bangladesh are low in primary and se
condary schools. The teacher
interview
respondents were ve
ry dissatisfied with th
eir pay and allowances
and other conditions
of service.
The most commonly mentione
d factors that adversely af
fect job satisfaction and
motivation among teachers in
Bangladesh are as follows:
•
poor remuneration and othe
r conditions of service
•
unattractive school locations
•
limited physical facil
ities (including availability
of furniture)
•
lack of opportunities for
further teac
her-training
•
heavy workloads
•
virtually non-exis
tent promotion a
nd career paths
•
unruly student
behaviour
•
problematic rela
tionships with the community
•
dysfunctional School Mana
gement Committees
•
other school quality fact
ors including very limite
d teaching a
nd learning
resources.
There is broad agreement th
at teachers in rural schoo
ls are more disadvantaged
because the majority is
situated in remote
locations with poor
communications, which
means that teachers feel
isolated and disint
erested in transferring to
such locations.
Given that the facilit
ies at rural schools are often
so
poor, teachers are not usually
prepared to live ne
ar the school. They have ther
efore to commut
e long distances
(often up to 30 kilometres),
which leaves them
tired and lacking energy for
teaching.
The Director of Secondary and
Highe
r Education (DSHE) and other
MOE
respondents noted that job
satisfaction and mo
tivation tends to
be higher among
government teachers b
ecause, unlike their
colleagues in
the private sect
or, they have
high levels of job security.
Teachers at
private schools depend
entirely on the School
Management Committees. Thes
e respondents also felt that
secondary sc
hool teachers
are better motivated than pr
imary school teache
rs because of be
tter remuneration,
lighter course-loads, and gr
eater scope to earn income
from private tuition.
Teachers universally dislike
the practice of ‘s
peed payments’ (money paid to
facilitate
speedy action or influence
decisions such
as eligibility for transfer,
promotion,
‘efficiency bar’
4
, payment of contingency
bills). In ef
fect, this is a form of
bribery.
When auditors / inspectors
come to bot
h government and non-gove
rnment schools to
update records and expenditure
s, schools are expected to
give speed payment to
auditors for this service. In
general, speed payments are e
xpected for any type of work
teachers need supported by hi
gher level officials. A Dir
ectorate of Primary Education
(DPE) monitoring report found
that nearly
40 percent of teach
ers at government
4
Efficiency Bar’ - After
successful completion of 7
years of service teachers ar
e eligible for EB which
entitles them to get Tk. 5-10
more as a yearly increment.
11
percent of base salary plus
flat rate a
llowances for medical
expenses (Tk.400) and
tiffin (Tk.100). Both primar
y and secondary school teache
rs can roughly
double their
income over a 20-year period
9
.
Table 3.1: Total gross monthly
incomes of teachers at government primary and secondary
schools, January 2005
PRIMARY SECONDARY
Bottom scale Top scale Bottom
scale Top scale
BASIC PAY
Trained teacher 3000 5920 5100
10360
Non-trained 2800 4870 na na
Trained headteacher
3100 6380 1
1000 17650
TOTAL PAY
Trained teacher 4850 9084 7895
15522
Non-trained 4270 7562 na na
Trained headteacher
Notes
: Total pay includes medical,
tiffin and housin
g allowances. Teacher pay
scales have 18
increments and one efficiency
bar.
It is noticeable that
the income different
ial between trained and
non-trained primary
school teachers is only 12-17
percent, which
means that there is relatively
little
financial incentive for
untrained teachers to
upgrade their qualifications.
The income
differential between head teac
hers and teachers is small
at primary schools, but quite
sizeable at secondary
schools. Secondary
school teachers are pa
id around two-thirds
more than primary
school teachers.
A trained teacher wi
th around ten years experience
earned around Tk. 4000 in
early
2005. Although this amounts to
only
$hh
per day, it is
gg
times GDP per capita. The
annual salary increment for
government primary sc
hool teacher is le
ss than one dollar
and the starting salary is
little more than the pa
y of a government driver.
Even though teacher pay is
low,
in real terms,
the value of the te
acher’s salary has
doubled since 1990 (see
Table 3.2).
Table 3.2: Real income trends
for trained gov
ernment teachers (starting
salaries) (2005 prices)
1990 1995 2000 2005
Primary
Income 1615 3310 2701 3500
Index 100 205 167 217
Secondary
Income 4428 5642 6666 7895
Index 100 127 151 178
9
As of June 2005, a new pay
commission will result in an increase of entry-level pay to 4,000
Taka.
Non-government and NGO
teachers
Prior to 1994, non-government
teachers received a monthl
y salary subvention from
government of Tk.500.00. Since
then, they have been paid
on the basis of the national
pay scales for government
teachers. Initiall
y, teachers were paid between
50-70
percent of the basic govern
ment pay depending on experi
ence. However, the basic
pay of newly appoint
ed teacher at a re
gistered non-government school
is now 70
percent that of a government
teacher and this rises to 90
percent for teachers with
more than five years
experience. As can be
observed in Table 3.3,
the allowances paid
to non-government teachers are
much less and, once this
is taken into account, the
income differential betwee
n the two groups of
teachers is over
50 percent.
Table 3.3: Conditions of
service for
teachers at government and
registered
non-government schools
REMUNERATION GOVERNMENT
NON-GOVERNMENT
Salary Eligible for basic
salary 70-90 percent of basic salary
House rent 40 – 55percent
Tk.100/month (fixed)
Medical allowance Tk.400
(fixed) Tk.150/month (fixed)
Tiffin allowance Tk.100 / month Two
festival allowances per year
(25
percent of basic salary)
Rest and recreation
allowance
Equivalent to basic salary
every three years
Not eligible
Yearly increment and
efficiency bar
Eligible Not eligible
Time-scaled salary
increase
After 8, 12 and 15
years of service
Not eligible
Pension Eligible Not eligible
With such low incomes, many
teachers are forced to ea
rn additional income from
part-time, ‘secondary
’ activities.
4. IMPACT ON TE
ACHER PERFORMANCE
Teacher motivation is
crucial for effective delivery
of
education.
A de-motivated
teaching force is a liability
to the education system as
well thought through reforms
will remain sterile in the
hands of teachers who are not
committed to the goals of
educational reform. Low
motivation impact
s on teacher behaviour
and shows itself in
attitudes to attendan
ce, punctuality, time on task,
and ultimately the performance
output of teache
rs. This section explores the
kind
of impact low teac
her motivation is
having on teacher be
haviour and performance
in Bangladesh. It be
gins with a look at
teacher policies a
nd practices on recruitment
and de
ployment and how these may be
contributing to teacher
motivation levels.
4.1 TEACHER RECRUITMENT
Most teachers are recruite
d in two different
ways. For government
primary schools,
the DPE advertises vacant
posts in the
daily newspapers. Both
oral and written
selection tests and interviews
are used
to screen candidates. Teachers
who are
appointed are posted to school
s all over the count
ry, regardle
ss of their home area,
which makes it very difficult
to find suita
ble accommodation, especially
for female
teachers. There are also la
pses in the process through
corruption and malpractice.
Despite these problems the
selection proce
dure has been maintain
ed. The number of
vacant positions is based on a
stude
nt-teacher rati
o of 1:60.
In non-government, community,
and privat
e schools, SMCs ar
e responsible for
teacher recruitment, mostly on
the basis of
interviews. Teachers in these
schools are
usually recruited from the lo
cal community and, for this
reason, suitable candidates
are not always available.
10
Selected candidates have to
be formally approved by the
RNGPS Project Implementation
Unit. Alt
hough the number of positions
depends on
student enrolment there is a
minimum of
9 posts for NGSS teachers.
Community
schools follow a similar
process although prio
rity is given to
candidates who are
stronger in English
and mathematics.
Government lays down the
minimum select
ion criteria for teach
ers. Primary school
teachers must
have a Higher Se
condary Certificate (HSC
) and secondary school
teachers must be co
llege graduates or ha
ve a degree
pass. About 15-20 percent of
teachers exceed these minimum
qualifications. Primary sc
hool teachers who do have
the Certificate in Education
are required to
attend a 12-month cour
se at a PTI within
two years of thei
r appointment.
In one study, focu
s group participants
11
pinpointed the problems of
teacher
recruitment in the ma
jority of schools. SM
C members, parents,
teachers, Assistant
Upazila Education Officers and
Upazila E
ducation Officers all
mentioned corruption
in the process of teacher r
ecruitment (see below).
10
In RNGPS schools, for
instance, if four positions are available in a school with no headteacher,
two of the places must go to
women and a senior t
eacher is appointed to act as
head and given an
allowance of 50 taka.
11
Education Watch Report 2003/4
(2005)
4.2 TEACHER DEPLOYMENT
High vacancy rates are sympto
matic of the serious problem
s that are en
countered in
deploying teachers around
the country. The 2004 vacanc
y rates for gove
rnment and
non-government schools
were 16 and 8 percent re
spectively in 2004.
School staffing is very
unsatis
factory. Student-teacher rati
os can be as high as 400 in
urban schools and 250 in ru
ral schools. The STRs fo
r primary and secondary
education as a whole are 1:
60 and 1:40 respecti
vely. Urban schools
have, on average,
more than seven teachers a
nd rural schools have four.
Most schools are seriously
overcrowded with students.
The distribution and number of
teachers in schools and st
udent-teacher ratios affect
the quality of educational
provision. Although the
one-teacher school
is an acceptable
norm in non-formal primary sc
hools, in traditional school
s, adequate staffing of
teachers has been a critical
issue.
Table 4.1: Primary teacher
student ratio
Type of Primary School
2003 2004
Teacher
student ratio
Average student
per Institution
Teacher
student ratio
Average student
per Institution
1. GPS 1:66 283 1:64 275
2. RNGPS 1:54 212 1:53 206
3. NRNGPS 1:32 123 1:45 175
4. Community 1:35 136
5. Other primary level
institution
1:31 123 - -
All types primary school 1:52
212 1:60 270
Source
: DPE monitoring Report PE
statistics- as 30 June 2004
A survey of selected upazila
(sub-districts) shows that the
average number of teachers
in government primary school
is 4.5 while
the number fo
r non-government schools is
only 3.8 for five grades (Gra
des One through Five), with
more than one section in
some grades. To cope with
understaffing, most
government schools run in two
shifts,
with Grades One and Two in the
first shift
(9:00 am to 11:30 am) and
Grades Three to
Five in the second shift
(12:00 noon to 4:
00 pm). Understaffi
ng seriously lowers
teacher morale
and motivation.
Table 4.2: Qualification
profile of teachers
12
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION
PERCENTAGE
Secondary School
Certificate 49.6
Higher Secondary Certificate
35.7
College Degree 13.4
C-in-Ed or B. Ed. training
90.5
Others 02.3
A base-line survey of selected
rural schoo
ls demonstrates the
extent of teacher
shortages in specific
subject areas. For science,
mathem
atics and English, the STRs at
the survey schools ranged
from 1:100 and 1:150.
13
The situation with respect to
12
World Bank Bangladesh Education Sector Review, Dhaka (2000)
13
Baseline Survey of Secondary
Sc
hool in Three Selected
Districts.
Dhaka, IED, BRAC University,
Haq, M Nazmul (2004).
trained teachers is much wo
rse: only three quarters of
primary school teachers and
half of secondary teachers ar
e trained. Finally, the STR is
also much higher in lower
grades.
4.3 TEACHER ATTENDANCE
As in other countries, it is
asserted that low teache
r morale and motivation in
Bangladesh is reflected in
high rates of absenteeism a
nd poor timekeeping (see table
4.3). Teacher absenteeism is
noticeably hi
gher in primary schools,
which may be due
to lower pay, more di
fficult working conditions and
remo
ter, less attrac
tive locations.
Due to poor pay and heavy
teaching loads,
many teachers participate in
secondary
wage-earning activities, such
as agricultural
work in rural areas
and private
tuition in
urban areas. Teachers are al
so active participants in po
litics, which can affect the
amount of time they spend in
the classr
oom. However, the
situation has been
improving in recent years.
Better-trained managers ar
e paying more attention to
addressing punctuality a
nd attendance issues.
Table 4.3: Teacher abse
nteeism rates, March 2005
14
CATEGORY PRIMARY SECONDARY
Male 15.3 17.1
Female 15.3 21
Head teacher 20.2 17.8
Assistant head teacher N/A
11.3
Assistant teacher 14.9 15.2
Rural area 15.7 19
Municipality area 12.7 13.5
Metropolitan area 17.5 10.8
Although absenteeism rates are
hi
gh, it is important to emph
asise that most teachers
have legitimate reasons for
being absent (see
Table 4.4). The majo
rity of secondary
schools are non-government
hence teac
hers are not called on to
the same extent to
undertake extra-educational du
ties outside of the school.
Headmasters, however,
often attend off-school
meetings or are oc
cupied with administ
rative work. Primary
school teachers, on the
other hand, are freque
ntly summoned to unde
rtake a variety of
administrative tasks such as
population ce
nsuses, national electi
ons, and health and
sanitation programmes. Teac
hers also are involved in
child census in school
catchments, the dist
ribution of stipends for poor
children, maintaining progress
reports, the collection and di
stribution of gover
nment textbooks a
nd the maintenance
of many records. Co
llectively, these activities
consum
e a significant amount of time
away from the classroom. Head
teachers are
also involved in
administrative activities
such as attending monthly c
oordination meetings, reviewi
ng/approving salary bills,
conducting School Manageme
nt Committee meetings, or
ganising Pa
rent-Teacher
Association meetings, a
nd attending to officials
and other visitors.
14
Survey Reports – March 2005
Table 4.4: Reasons for teacher
absences
HEAD TEACHERS PRIMARY
SECONDARY
Official teaching-rela
ted duty 68.6 75.0
Other official duty 0 0
Sickness 0 6.3
Authorised leave 22.9 6.2
Left early 2.8 6.2
Arrive later 2.8 0
Off due to Exam 0 0
Non-authorised absence 2.9 6.3
Teachers
Official teaching rela
ted duty 41.2 43.8
Other official duty 5.9 0
Sickness 12.8 3.1
Authorised leave 35.3 31.3
Left early 1.0 0
Arrive later 1.0 0
Non-teaching duties are some
times mandatory due to Educ
ation Office directives.
Teachers interviewed expresse
d dissatisfaction
regarding these du
ties. Generally
male teachers are more bur
dened by these duties since so
me of these tasks are not
considered suitable fo
r female teachers.
These non-teaching duties perf
ormed by teachers play an
important role in their
communities. The impact, however,
of teac
her absence has been found to
depress
learning outcomes. Teache
r absenteeism both creates and
results from lessened
commitment to classroom
teaching and general preparedness for classes (as
demonstrated, for example, by
the lack of
proper lesson planni
ng). Data on teacher
absenteeism, however, remains
very scar
ce and the education de
partment does not
keep any records or have a ma
ndate for necessary actions.
4.4 TEACHER BEHAVIOUR
Corruption and other
malpractice
Corruption and other unethical
practices among teachers in
Bangladesh ar
e alleged to
be widespread. Although no
detailed and co
mprehensive statisti
cs are available,
probably around one half
of all teachers are involved
in
some form of malpractice.
Various authors, journalists,
and reports fr
om government offici
als mention irregular
or unethical practices amo
ng teachers. Box 1 summarises
findings of a 2000 survey
by Transparency International Bangladesh
15
.
Corruption is found in all
types of educati
on institutions. The most
common practice
is insisting students attend
pr
ivate coaching instead of teac
hing them in class. Other
corruption is related to
giving good marks to known or
identified students or
disclosing exam questions
in exchange for money.
Many public examination
questions are revealed prior
to examinations.
Another form of corruption is
the sale of
school copies of te
xtbooks and other learni
ng materials in the ma
rket. Serious types of
15
Transparency International
Bangladesh (2000) as quoted in Education Watch 2003/4. p. 118-9.
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