Bangladesh Church educators decry boom in private tuition

(February 06, 2012) A sudden surge in the private tuition business has caught the attention of the Bangladesh High Court and attracted criticism from Church educators. There are now an estimated 50,000 coaching centers across the country, with 20,000 of them in the capital, Dhaka. Many have only opened recently. Concerned by this development, the country’s High Court called upon the Education Ministry to investigate. The ensuing report was highly critical of adequate standards and overcrowding. According to Holy Cross Father Benjamin Costa, the principal of the reputed Notre Dame College in Dhaka, “If these centres provided a true education, what would be the use of schools and colleges run by the Church?” Church leaders are most annoyed by the fact that some centres also adopt the names of well known Church-run institutes, implying that they are part of the same establishment. Brother Robi Purification, headmaster of St Gregory’s High School, described the coaching trade “the deadliest disease for education in Dhaka.” But he acknowledged that inadequate salaries of some teachers force them to offer private tuition. In Bangladesh, there is no law as yet against coaching centers or regulation of their conduct. Some media reports say powerful business interests are involved in this multimillion taka trade, which may make the government reluctant to take a firmer stance.