Govt’s top priority is to make every school fully functional: Bobby

The government's top priority is to transform every school into a fully functional learning institution by prioritising student outcomes over infrastructure alone, Primary and Mass Education State Minister Bobby Hajjaj said today (26 July).

"What matters more than school infrastructure or project implementation is how much students actually learn when they attend school," he said while addressing a daylong training workshop at the Primary Teachers' Training Institute in Sylhet.

The workshop, organised by the district primary education office, was titled "Classroom Operations, Monitoring, Accountability and Changing Expectations of Local Administration in Bangladesh's Primary Education." Bobby conducted three training sessions over nearly six hours.

Addressing field-level education officials, he outlined the government's future vision for primary education, administrative reforms, effective monitoring and measures to improve learning standards.

He instructed officials to collect practical information from the field to identify why schools were underperforming, whether due to teacher shortages, infrastructure deficiencies, inadequate training or other factors.

Bobby stressed that problems should be accurately identified and addressed promptly rather than concealed.

"All government investment will centre on student learning. Therefore, school inspections should not be limited to administrative supervision. Emphasis must be placed on assessing students' learning progress by conducting direct learning audits in classrooms," he said.

The state minister also said the government was working to enhance the capacity, status and facilities of education administrators to bring qualitative improvements to primary education, while introducing stricter performance, transparency and accountability measures.

He added that the government plans to appoint cleaners and night guards at all government primary schools by next year.