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The national curriculum from primary to higher secondary level education is set to undergo more changes in the next two years causing uncertainties in the overall process of learning, particularly for the young learners. 

One experiment after another carried out in the education sector in recent times have resulted only in failure as the basic standard and quality of education continue to face questions.

Before yet another new curriculum is introduced, the latest national curriculum of 2021 is set to be replaced by the 2012 curriculum next year as a contingency plan, said officials of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.

From 2026, a revised curriculum will be implemented, according to a recent decision by the interim government that assumed power on August 8 following the deposition of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime in a student-led mass uprising.

The textbooks will drop some contents to include new ones, particularly regarding the history of Bangladesh, officials said.

The primary and secondary levels have separate learning processes, which would face a challenge to be met in 2026, the board officials said.

As the curriculum is set to undergo changes it will involve massive expenses also, they added.

Senior educationists caution that the government should act in this regard in a planned manner and take time to change the curriculum otherwise it may create uncertainty among the students and teachers, causing difficulties in the implementation of the new curriculum.

Most recently, the then Awami League government in a bid to introduce a continuous assessment-based new national curriculum began its phased implementation: first to Classes I, VI and VII in 2023, then to Classes II, III, VIII and IX in 2024 and was scheduled to introduce it for Classes IV, V and X in 2025.

Soon after the implementation, controversy erupted around the students’ assessment system and some of the textbook contents.

‘For 2025, the 2021 curriculum will continue to be implemented for the classes from pre-primary to Class III,’ said NCTB chairman professor AKM Reazul Hassan.

He alleged that no one understood the new assessment introduced under the 2021 curriculum.

‘In the name of the teacher’s training to implement 2021 curriculum, around Tk 1,300 crore was wasted,’ he said, adding, ‘we are currently writing and printing new books for Class X students for 2025 by paying an extra Tk 600–650 crore ditching the books already prepared under the 2021 curriculum.’

‘Changes in the curriculum requires time, detailed plan and research, or else it creates uncertainties,’ professor Hosne Ara Begum, director (acting) of the Institute of Education and Research under Dhaka University, said.

She explains that for preparing a revised curriculum for 2026 the government has only one year, and the changes introduced through a hastily prepared curriculum will potentially cause negative reaction among all the stakeholders, including students, teaching staff and guardians. 

‘We are taking programme after programme but cannot achieve our vision as we are not going in a planned way,’ the professor said.

She urged the government to take time to change the curriculum.

‘In 2021 curriculum big changes were brought in the evaluation process that faced substantial challenges during implementation as the system was a novel one and the teachers lacked training,’ said BRAC University professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed.

He said that for the coming years the government should not entirely change the previous curriculum.

‘We should take the good things from the 2021 curriculum,’ he said, adding that otherwise problems would arise again in implementing the new curriculum.  

NCTB chairman professor Reazul Hassan mentioned that for the revised curriculum in 2026 they were yet to fix the process of learning.

According to the board, while implementing the 2021 curriculum the primary and mass education ministry used a student-centric active learning method for primary level

students.

This method aims at making students more active enabling teachers to teach them based on the students’ earlier knowledge.

The education ministry for the secondary and higher secondary level students followed the experiential learning method in which the students would be active and learn following direct experiences with no necessity for pre-learned knowledge.

The NCTB chairman observed that separate learning methods at the primary and secondary levels made learning difficult for the students. 

‘In 2021, an agreement was signed between the two ministries that the secondary level curriculum will follow the primary level curriculum,’ professor Reazul Hassan said, adding, ‘but the education ministry did not honour the agreement.’

He expressed hope that from 2026 under the revised curriculum the active learning would be followed both at primary and secondary levels.

The professor also mentioned that they had changed some contents in the textbooks for 2025, in history in particular.

‘We included the contributions of many leading people from different historical events,’ he said and mentioned that Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Sher-e-Bangla Abul Kasem Fazlul Haque, General Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani and Major General Ziaur Rahman were included in the changed contents.

The titles of religion books were also changed, as for example, the title ‘Islam and Moral Studies’ has been changed to Islamic Studies, according to the NCTB chairman.

‘We kept the graffiti made by the students following the July uprising as the back cover of the books. We dropped the political propaganda like photos of the former prime minister and her quotations,’ he said.

He also said that in the textbooks of Classes V–X, eight contents of the July uprising and some photos of the people martyred in the uprising were included.

Professor Reazul Hassan further said that no examinations would be held till Class II in 2025.

For the year 2025 and for the annual examinations for the current year, he continued, they would return to the written examination-based system instead of continuous assessment-based system, he said.

The chairman mentioned that the educational institutions would fix science, humanities and business studies groups based divisions for the students who would be promoted to Class X in 2025.