Education System in Bangladesh: A Conflicting Approach to Building a Good Citizen

Education is of utmost importance for a country to develop by. It is one of the powerful yardsticks to measure human consciousness upon the qualities of ethics, morality, courtesy, behaviour, relationship, nationality, justice, proper power exercise, tradition loyalty, and so forth. Some countries reach to the topmost peaceful living standard whereas most of the countries struggle to stay peaceful in the midst of their so many conflicting issues. Living a good life becomes a challenge as long as the importance of education is hardly realized. Scarcity of fundamental needs, discrimination of education, and the division of the educational system under religiously traditional norms in one phase and the general system with English-medium inclusion in another phase are impeding the basic learning environment for children. A pile of textbooks is prescribed for child school learning that is hardly adaptable to real-life activism. The maxim that a child is the father of a nation is hardly pragmatic in Bangladesh. Here, a child is classified into a stratified scale upon economic and social status which is not privileged by the state for ensuring his/her education. This disparity brings to light the emergence of inequality thus creating a barrier to planting a seed of good citizen. The research tries to explore the related variables of why creating good citizens becomes very challenging in Bangladesh. For Bangladesh, a country aspiring to move beyond the limitations of poverty, illiteracy, and political volatility, education is not only a developmental tool but also a contested domain reflecting historical legacies, religious traditions, socio-economic divides, and global pressures. This research article interrogates the paradox of education in Bangladesh: while the state constitutionally guarantees education as a right and policy frameworks envision a just and equitable system, in practice, education is fragmented, hierarchical, and conflict-laden. The paper investigates why producing “good citizens” remains elusive, with children divided into streams of madrasa, Bangla-medium, and English-medium systems, each fostering different worldviews. Using the capability approach (Sen), critical pedagogy (Freire), and Marxist/postcolonial critiques, and drawing on national statistics and international reports (BBS, UNESCO, UNDP, World Bank), the paper argues that despite gains in enrollment, systemic fragmentation, underinvestment, and governance deficits constrain the formation of ethical, skilled, and civically engaged citizens. Comparative reflections from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and South Korea demonstrate that political will, policy coherence, and equitable investment can transform education into a true public good and a foundation for democratic citizenship.