PM Tarique Rahman’s Challenge: Corruption in the Education Sector

Corruption in the education sector is not merely an administrative irregularity in Bangladesh's national life; it strikes at the foundation on which the country's future is built. Eliminating deeply rooted corruption in education has therefore emerged as one of the most complex challenges facing Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, because when a state fails to prepare its future generations with both knowledge and integrity, the consequences extend far beyond the classroom.

Studies by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and other organisations have documented governance weaknesses, irregularities and corruption across different parts of Bangladesh's education sector. TIB, for instance, has identified irregularities in textbook formulation, publication and distribution, including weaknesses in tendering, oversight and accountability at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).

Education is generally expected to enlighten people and guide them towards morality. Yet the existence of corruption among educated citizens demonstrates that academic qualifications alone cannot guarantee ethical conduct, particularly when people operate within institutions where rules are weakly enforced and corrupt practices become normalised.

Recent research involving 250 university-educated participants in Peru found associations between corrupt intentions and factors including Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, perceptions of normative weakness and political distrust. The study does not suggest that education itself causes corruption; rather, it highlights how individual dispositions and perceptions of dysfunctional institutions can interact with a person's willingness to engage in corrupt behaviour.

This is an important distinction for Bangladesh. If educated people enter a system in which rules exist on paper but are inconsistently enforced, academic achievement alone may not prevent them from adapting to the system's corrupt incentives.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to produce more graduates. It is to build institutions in which merit, professional ethics, accountability and respect for the law are reinforced throughout a person's education and working life.

The political inheritance

The foundations of Tarique Rahman's political thinking are closely associated with the legacy of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Supporters of the BNP have often presented Ziaur Rahman's emphasis on administrative discipline and people's participation, alongside Khaleda Zia's education initiatives, as important parts of that political inheritance.

Ziaur Rahman's governments placed emphasis on programmes such as canal excavation, mass participation and agricultural production. The idea that development should be connected with people's direct participation became an important part of the political narrative surrounding his administration.

Khaleda Zia's government, meanwhile, introduced nationwide female secondary-school stipend and tuition-support programmes in the 1990s. Subsequent research has found that the 1994 Female Secondary School Stipend Programme increased years of education among eligible girls, delayed marriage and increased their participation in formal-sector work.

The programme subsequently became an important part of Bangladesh's education policy history. Research and development assessments have associated expanded female education with later gains in women's economic participation, while more recent commentary has also linked the policy environment of the period to the growth of the ready-made garment sector.

The lesson from these experiences is not that one political administration alone created Bangladesh's educational progress. Rather, it is that sustained policy interventions can produce effects far beyond their immediate objectives when they expand access to education and create opportunities for disadvantaged groups.

Where does corruption enter?

Corruption, however, has penetrated numerous layers of the education system. Allegations and documented governance concerns have involved textbook publication, procurement, recruitment, examination processes and the administration of educational institutions, while TIB has repeatedly called for greater transparency and accountability in the sector.

The NCTB provides a particularly revealing example. A TIB study found irregularities in textbook publication and distribution, including problems in tendering and oversight, and recommended greater institutional independence, transparency and accountability for the board.

More recent developments suggest that concerns over textbook management have not disappeared. In October 2025, TIB again called for stronger autonomy, transparency and accountability at NCTB, while in January 2025 a writ petition was filed seeking an investigation into allegations of irregularities involving textbook printing. These are allegations and institutional concerns that require due process, but they illustrate why procurement and oversight remain central to education governance.

Recruitment presents another serious challenge. When teachers are selected through political connections, financial transactions or other forms of influence rather than transparent merit-based procedures, the damage goes beyond one appointment because the people entrusted with educating the next generation may themselves become products of a compromised system.

The same principle applies to transfers, promotions and project allocations. If these decisions depend on personal connections rather than transparent criteria, administrative positions can become opportunities for rent-seeking rather than mechanisms for improving educational institutions.

The challenge within the ruling party

For the present government, there is also a political challenge that cannot be separated from education reform. BNP leaders and activists who spent years in opposition may have expectations after the party's return to government, but those expectations cannot become a justification for occupying educational institutions or influencing recruitment and administrative decisions.

The government therefore faces a difficult test of whether it can distinguish political organisation from state administration. Education institutions, in particular, require protection from partisan competition because students, teachers and researchers ultimately depend on them for an environment based on academic rather than political considerations.

The same principle should apply to public spending. Large allocations for school buildings, college infrastructure, laboratories and other educational projects create opportunities for corruption when procurement and monitoring systems are weak.

Technology can play an important role here, but it is not a substitute for institutional accountability. Digital procurement, online tracking, real-time auditing and publicly accessible information can make manipulation more difficult while also creating an audit trail for investigating irregularities.

Education must be about more than buildings

A central question for Bangladesh is what it actually wants its education system to produce. If education is measured only through examination results, new buildings and the number of certificates issued, the system can expand without necessarily producing the ethical and technically capable citizens the country needs.

The government's stated education priorities include technical and practical education, greater emphasis on employment-oriented skills and curriculum reforms. The 31-point programme associated with the BNP also places education among the areas targeted for reform, while the government has said it intends to increase education spending and strengthen technical and practical learning.

The idea of a "Learning with Happiness" approach from Grade Six, as described in the party's election commitments, represents a move away from an education system dominated by memorisation. Group work, individual skills, creativity and social and moral development can have a meaningful place alongside academic knowledge.

Language education could also be connected to employment policy. Expanding opportunities to learn Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and other languages may help students access international education and labour markets, provided language training is linked to genuine skills development rather than treated as another certificate-producing exercise.

What can technology change?

One of the most promising areas for reform is educational administration. Transfers, promotions, recruitment processes and project allocations can increasingly be moved into transparent digital systems, where decisions are recorded and the scope for discretionary intervention is reduced.

Blockchain technology has also been proposed as a tool for preventing manipulation of academic credentials. A 2025 study based on a simulated system at Kazakhstan's International Information Technology University found that its proposed blockchain and artificial intelligence verification system reduced verification time by 85 percent in testnet experiments, but the researchers explicitly described these as simulation results rather than evidence from a nationwide production system.

That distinction matters. Bangladesh should not adopt technology simply because it sounds modern; it should adopt systems after testing whether they actually improve transparency, security, cost and accountability in the local context.

Digitalisation can also reduce opportunities for petty corruption by reducing unnecessary physical interaction between citizens and officials. But technology cannot eliminate corruption if the people operating the system remain able to manipulate data, bypass procedures or interfere with audits.

Lessons from abroad

Bangladesh can draw lessons from countries that have placed considerable emphasis on teacher quality, institutional discipline and public integrity, but these experiences should not be copied mechanically. Finland, Japan and Singapore developed their education systems within very different political, economic and institutional environments.

Finland is frequently cited for its emphasis on teacher quality, professional autonomy and cooperation. Japan's education system places substantial emphasis on social behaviour and civic responsibility alongside academic learning, while Singapore's experience demonstrates how institutional discipline and strong anti-corruption enforcement can be combined with investment in human capital.

The relevant lesson for Bangladesh is therefore not to reproduce another country's education system wholesale. It is to identify which institutional principles, such as merit-based recruitment, professional standards, transparency and accountability, can realistically be adapted to Bangladesh.

The experience of Malaysia under Mahathir Mohamad offers another example frequently discussed in relation to development and human capital. His government's "Look East" policy encouraged Malaysians to learn from the industrial discipline and work practices associated with Japan and South Korea, while technical education and skills development were given greater emphasis.

The question of political power

The deeper challenge is whether education reform can be insulated from the political incentives that have historically shaped public institutions. No education policy can succeed if teachers are recruited through political influence, university administrations are treated as political territories, or public procurement is used to reward networks of influence.

This is why the government's own conduct will matter as much as its policy documents. A government cannot credibly demand honesty from students while allowing political connections to determine who receives a teaching appointment, a promotion or an administrative position.

The same standard should apply to the ruling party itself. If the government expects citizens to trust its anti-corruption agenda, it will need to demonstrate that party affiliation does not provide protection when allegations of corruption arise.

The proposed Family Card and Farmer Card programmes are examples of the government's broader welfare agenda, and the Prime Minister has said the government is implementing these commitments from its election manifesto. But social programmes of this scale also require strong monitoring systems so that benefits reach intended recipients rather than becoming another source of political patronage or administrative leakage.

The proposal for a bicameral parliament and a two-term limit for prime ministers, included in the BNP's 31-point programme, similarly reflects a broader argument about institutional checks and balances. Whether such reforms ultimately strengthen accountability will depend not only on their formal adoption but also on how institutions operate in practice.

What should education reform achieve?

The ultimate test is simple but difficult: can Bangladesh build an education system in which academic achievement and ethical conduct reinforce rather than contradict each other?

Eliminating corruption from education will not happen through arrests, slogans or new technology alone. It requires transparent recruitment, independent oversight, effective audits, protection for whistleblowers, accountable university administrations, credible examination systems and a curriculum that treats ethics as part of education rather than as an afterthought.

The government also needs to recognise that corruption is not simply a problem of dishonest individuals. It is often sustained by institutional incentives, weak enforcement and networks that make wrongdoing easier and more rewarding than compliance.

That is why education reform should be understood as a governance reform as much as an academic one. A school or university that teaches integrity but operates through opaque recruitment and procurement sends students a contradictory message about how society actually works.

Bangladesh's education system has made significant gains in access and participation, including in female education. The next challenge is to ensure that these gains are matched by stronger institutional integrity, better teaching, technical competence and public accountability.

The warning often attributed to a sign at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa says that destroying a nation does not require weapons if its education system can be weakened through cheating and corruption. Whether or not the quotation can be reliably traced to that institution, the underlying point remains relevant: the quality and integrity of education shape the quality of the institutions that come after it.

For Bangladesh, the question is therefore larger than what one government can accomplish. The real challenge is whether the country can build an education system in which knowledge produces capability, capability is guided by ethics, and public institutions reward merit rather than connections.

If that transformation is to take place, political leadership will matter. But so will teachers, administrators, universities, parents, students and the institutions responsible for enforcing the rules. Education can become a foundation for national development only when the system itself begins practising the values it expects the next generation to learn.