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The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) hosted a dialogue session on Monday, 25th August 2025, at the CIRDAP (Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific) Auditorium to discuss Bangladesh's education and public health sectors. The session was moderated by Zillur Rahman, President of the Centre for Governance Studies.  

Zillur Rahman began the session by stating that reform is currently a widely discussed topic in the country. However, there has been little discussion regarding the education and health sectors. The fundamental needs of these sectors have not received adequate attention. Although various reform commissions have been formed in the country, there is no commission specifically focused on education reform. Work must be done to ensure inclusive quality education. In addition, to guarantee public health services and improve the education and health sectors, not only the government but also private institutions, research organizations, and civil society must actively participate.

Rasheda K. Choudhury has said, Bangladesh is going through an education poverty, our children are not learning, they are passing grades, but they are not being educated and learning. Why do we need two ministries for education? This creates bureaucratic barriers that create more problems than they solve. They are going to start the scholarship exams again for class 5, which will create another discrimination; they will categorize the children into 40% and they will give this exam. The teachers and schools will focus on this 40% and the rest will go unnoticed. If they had stopped with this exam and used that budget to give these children food, that would have been more impactful. 

Dr AZM Zahid Hossain has said I don’t think anyone has talked about education in the past 13 months. There has been no positive change, the governance has been very poor, and we don’t know if this is going to improve from here. We were very hopeful about this government in the beginning, but they have not been doing what we expected from them. I think it is good that there hasn’t been an education commission, because if there were, they would bring some non-resident Bangladeshi’s who have little idea of how the country and its people function. I was one of the first medical officers of a union health complex back in 1984. You can’t say these don’t work; they do. We have manpower at these places there is a lack of skill; we have to build that skill. Primary education and healthcare are a human right, and we need to ensure that irrespective of their race, religion, social status, and economic class. I don’t think there is a need for a large overhaul; we just need to make the systems that are there work better. BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia underwent a very difficult surgery here in Bangladesh; we couldn’t move her anywhere else, and the surgery went very well. When she could finally go abroad, the foreign doctors did not change a single medication, which is an endorsement of our doctors. So you cannot say our doctors are not capable. 

Dr. Syed Anwar Hussain has said, Currently, the education and healthcare systems in our country are in a state of disarray. Establish education and health commissions, and implement the Kudrat-e-Khuda Commission. Every government demands an education commission, yet this government lacks one. This is an unconstitutional government; the Constitution does not mention any provision for an interim government. 

Dr. Mohammad Mushtuq Husain has said, The current government has proposed the establishment of an independent health commission. If such a commission is formed, it could take initiatives to implement the recommendations of the Health Reform Commission on its own. He further stated that the major hospitals in the country are overcrowded, leaving no space for patients to even stand. However, secondary care hospitals such as those at the upazila level remain largely unused. Measures must be taken to ensure that hospitals at all levels are utilized equally. For this, greater attention must be given to improving the quality of healthcare services at the upazila level. In this way, decentralization of healthcare services is extremely important.

Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary has said, Migration has never been connected to our education system in any meaningful way. To go abroad, we need language proficiency and skills. Unfortunately, we lack linguistic competence. If, during our school years, we were taught at least one skill or language, our income abroad could increase two to three times. We have this potential, but the government has never utilized it. In this fiscal year, the budget for expatriate welfare has been reduced even though this sector sustains Bangladesh, and remittances have been steadily increasing.

Advocate Subrata Chowdhury has said that medical colleges are being established in rural areas, but there is no infrastructure. Medical equipment worth crores of taka remains unused, while in many places, surgeries cannot be performed due to a lack of necessary tools. We must pay attention to these issues.

Dr. Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan has said, the decrease in the education budget from last year to this year is concerning. The teachers who have been appointed in the previous regime have been very political. 

Dr. Tasnim Jara has said, the country’s healthcare system has been put on band aids again and again. Every time there is a crisis, we see that there is are lack in the healthcare system. It is not just about specialized healthcare; if we have proper primary healthcare, it would do wonders for the overall healthcare mechanism of Bangladesh. The emergency healthcare services are also in a problematic state; we could decrease the morbidity rate by a lot. We also need innovation in the healthcare system, the bio bank of the population, so we know what the best measures we could take as a nation. There is no centralized data system where patients’ data would be stored, and all hospitals can access, that way there’s a timeline of a patient's medical history. Bangladesh needs a systematic overhaul of its healthcare and education. 

Zonayed Saki has said that universities must be brought to a standard level. The authoritarian administrative practices we’ve witnessed in universities, the way rulers exert control over these institutions, and how teachers are used in that process. If these dynamics don’t change and a national consensus isn’t built, then we will never achieve true transformation. 

Dr. Mamun Ahmed has said, education has a fundamental problem that we haven’t been able to identify. The current system is put in place by very educated people, but it still falls short of our expectations. 

Dr. Mohammad Mainul Islam has said, there is no improvement in education or healthcare. Child marriage is one of the major problems in Bangladesh. The norms and religious practices aren’t the only issues that are causing child marriage; climate change is also a factor in increasing child marriage. 

Dr. Nizam Uddin Ahmed has said, When we think of public health, we tend to look for specialized hospitals. But if we confine public health within the boundaries of specialized hospitals, lives won’t be saved. Today, we have 85% immunization coverage, and our maternal and child mortality rates are among the lowest in Southeast Asia. These achievements aren’t the result of magic or a single solution; they must be recognized and understood.

Dr. Maudud Hossain Alamgir Pavel has said, In Bangladesh, most medical treatment is provided by unqualified or informal practitioners. None of our public hospitals has functioning equipment for cancer treatment. We produce 10,000 doctors every year, yet it doesn’t seem to benefit us meaningfully. Outside Dhaka, hospitals often lack both doctors and equipment, forcing people to travel to the capital for even basic care. Our medical education system still fails to meet international standards. Today, India has stopped issuing visas, so we’re now pleading for Chinese visas. If China stops, too, will we then turn to Thailand? Many of our doctors and engineers enter these professions under family pressure. They may become doctors in terms of intellect, but not in spirit.

Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam has said education and healthcare go hand in hand for improving the overall state of the country, the healthcare sector has less than 5% of the budget of and entire fiscal budget of the country. There are more than 70 private medical colleges; there is no quality control of these colleges.

Dr. Shakhawat Hossain Sayantha has said that Bangladesh has a lack of quality in its education. We have created a system where we prioritise grades over quality. We have focused more on producing high GPAs than on cultivating truly educated and humane individuals through quality education. We are now facing the consequences of this imbalance. We’ve created students with good grades, but the education system has failed to produce good human beings. As a result, we are witnessing increasing social and institutional degradation on a regular basis.

Golam Sarwar Milon has said, there has not been any education commission in all of the reformations of the country. In the education sector, we are focusing solely on higher education, but we want to prioritize technical education so that individuals can become skilled. In the health sector, we aim to enhance the skills of nurses so they can also provide services abroad. Decentralization in education and health should not be limited to political aspects; this kind of functional decentralization is also necessary.

Dr. Shawkat Ara Husain has said firstly, we need to address that the community clinics are working well for women’s maternal health and newborn health. The big private hospitals that we have at the capital are not available to everyone because they are very expensive. We used to go to India for better healthcare, now we are going to China, why? Don’t we have doctors in Bangladesh? We do, and they are good, but most people can’t afford them. We must work to make them affordable. When I was a student, the education system was the best in this subcontinent. Why can’t they bring back Dr. Kudrat E Khuda’s education commission? They won’t because they don’t like him. 

Sardar A Nayeem has said, After Indian visas were suspended last year, we began traveling to China for medical treatment. But why should we go to China instead of India? Policymakers have publicly promoted Chinese hospitals through various conferences. Why are we encouraging patients to seek treatment in India or China instead of strengthening our own healthcare system? Does this mean we don’t need medical care in our own country?

Dr. D. K. Shil Arpon has said that anyone can buy antibiotics all over the country, there is no regulation enforcement anywhere, and the whole country will become resistant to antibiotics. There is also a crisis of hospital beds all over government hospitals; for each bed, there are 4-5 patients.