Bangladesh secondary school enrollment falls 20% despite more schools

Bangladesh’s general secondary schools lost about 1.78 million students between 2018 and 2025 even as the number of schools increased, The Daily Star reported Oct. 26, citing official education statistics.

Enrollment in grades six through 10 fell 20.1%, from 8.857 million to 7.074 million. The number of schools rose from 16,186 to 16,737 over the same period.

Enrollment at registered Alia madrasas increased 10.1%. However, authorities lack a system to track whether students leaving general schools transfer elsewhere or leave education altogether.

Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), said officials would investigate the decline. Experts identified financial hardship, child labor, early marriage, and concerns about girls’ safety as possible contributing factors, rather than established explanations for every departure.