Teachers We Need For The Education We Want

Published on: May 19, 2026

Education begins with the teacher. Policies, textbooks, classrooms, and examinations all matter, but none of them can shape a learner on their own. The teacher gives life to the system. A good teacher does not simply deliver lessons. A good teacher helps students think clearly, ask questions, work with others, and grow into responsible human beings. For this reason, the quality of education in any nation rests first on the quality of its teachers.

The meaning of education itself supports this view. The word comes from Latin roots that suggest nourishing, bringing up, and leading out. Education, therefore, is not a narrow act of instruction. It is the process of drawing out the hidden abilities of learners and preparing them for life, work, and citizenship. A nation that treats education only as a path to employment reduces its own future.

Teachers must therefore be seen not only as instructors, but as guides. Their work is to create a classroom where students can listen, speak, cooperate, and learn with purpose. They must support the weak learner, encourage the quiet student, manage disagreement, and help every child move forward. These tasks require more than subject knowledge. They require training, judgment, and professional discipline.

This is where Bangladesh faces a serious weakness. Teacher education remains too theoretical and too distant from the real classroom. Many teachers do not receive enough preparation in practical teaching methods, digital literacy, assessment, or inclusive education. They are then expected to solve complex learning problems with limited support. The result is visible in classrooms across the country.

The learning crisis is clear. Many young students still struggle with basic reading and arithmetic. The National Learning Assessment 2022 found that more than 70 percent of students in classes 2 and 3 face difficulty with basic literacy. When children fail to read with understanding in the early years, later learning becomes weak. The loss does not remain inside primary schools. It follows students into secondary education, higher education, and the labour market.

Low public investment deepens this crisis. Bangladesh spends about 1.7 percent of its GDP on education, and the figure has remained below 2 percent for nearly two decades. Such spending cannot build a strong education system. It limits teacher training, fair salaries, learning materials, supervision, and school improvement. Reform needs money, but it also needs clear priorities. Teachers must be the first priority.

Respect for teachers must also be real. A society cannot ask teachers to build the nation while denying them dignity, fair pay, and proper working conditions. Teachers need a clear career path, regular training, and institutional support. Honour should not remain a ceremonial word. It must be reflected in salaries, policy, and public attitude.

The future makes this task more urgent. Artificial intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are changing how people learn, work, and communicate. Teachers must know how to use technology with care and purpose. Digital tools can support learning, but they cannot replace human guidance. The teacher must remain at the centre of education, using technology to strengthen thought, not weaken it.

Bangladesh must also look at education as one connected system. At present, the field is divided into several streams, including Bangla medium, English medium, Aliya madrasa, and Qawmi madrasa. These streams often follow different curricula, values, and social expectations. Diversity is not the problem. Division is. When students grow up in separate systems with little shared ground, national harmony suffers.

This division shapes both opportunity and worldview. Students from different streams often move toward different futures because of language, curriculum, class background, and access. Some enter local religious or community-based careers. Others move toward private universities or foreign education. These differences should not become walls between citizens. Education must reduce harmful distance while respecting diversity.

Teachers are central to that task. They can help students respect differences while developing a shared sense of citizenship. They can teach fairness, reason, and social trust. But they can do this only if they themselves are trained to rise above narrow bias and see education as a national responsibility.

Bangladesh needs a strong education commission to examine the whole system. Reform cannot succeed through scattered decisions. Teacher training, curriculum, assessment, funding, technology, inclusion, and governance are connected. A fragmented approach will produce fragmented results. Any serious national vision must place teachers at the centre.

The education we want will not be built by policy papers alone. It will be built in classrooms by skilled, respected, ethical, and prepared teachers. Bangladesh needs teachers who can teach literacy and numeracy well, but also guide students toward judgment, empathy, discipline, and civic responsibility. If education is the backbone of the nation, teachers are its strength. Investing in them is not a favour. It is a national duty.

Abrar is a graduate student at the Institute of Education and Research (IER), University of Dhaka.