Why can't we make our educational institutions safe for children?

Illustration: TBS

The boy was nine years old. His family had enrolled him at a madrassa in Sarishabari Upazila in Jamalpur, believing, as many Bangladeshi families do, that a religious institution would provide both education and protection.

In March 2025, local residents detained a 30-year-old senior madrassa teacher, Bojlur Rahman, after allegations emerged that he had repeatedly raped two students aged nine and 10 over several months. The army later intervened and took the accused into custody.

The incident was not isolated. From physical torture in classrooms to allegations of rape and sexual abuse inside residential madrassas, cases involving violence against children in educational institutions continue to emerge across Bangladesh with troubling regularity. 

The data shows an alarming trend 

Data compiled by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), based on media monitoring between 2020 and 2025, recorded 948 incidents involving teacher-inflicted violence against students. Of these, 737 involved physical torture and 211 involved sexual harassment or abuse by teachers.

The sharpest increase came in 2023, when cases of physical torture more than doubled from 109 in the previous year to 240. Yet only nine of those incidents resulted in formal case filings — a filing rate of 3.8%.

Infographic: TBS

In 2024, another shift appeared in the data. Physical torture cases declined, but reports of sexual harassment by teachers tripled from 30 to 90 within a year — the highest annual figure recorded in the dataset. Only seven cases resulted in formal complaints.

The trend has continued into 2025 and 2026. ASK and the Legal Education and Development Organisation (LEEDO) reported that child rape cases nationwide increased by 75% during the first seven months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. In January 2026 alone, ASK documented 35 rape cases, including 13 victims aged 12 or younger. 

A failure to enforce existing laws 

The Supreme Court banned corporal punishment in all educational institutions in 2011 following a writ petition filed by ASK and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) after a 10-year-old student died by suicide following a teacher's beating. Bangladesh also has legal provisions under the Children Act 2013 and the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

Prominent educationist Dr Rasheda K Chowdhury said Bangladesh does not suffer from a lack of laws, but from a failure to enforce them.

"There are clear laws against physical and humiliating punishment. The problem is that educational institutions continue to violate them because reforms have not taken place internally," she said.

She pointed to the failure of institutional monitoring systems, despite High Court directives requiring all educational institutions to form committees aimed at preventing abuse and harassment.

"These committees remain largely ineffective. In many cases, they are influenced by political interests and do not function properly," she said.

She argued that the deeper issue is a culture of impunity.

"Even when families gather the courage to approach the police or seek legal action, the cases drag on for years. Less than 3% of incidents of violence ultimately see justice," she said.

According to her, many families cannot even reach law enforcement because of social intimidation, economic vulnerability and the influence wielded by perpetrators.

"In many cases, local arbitration shifts the blame onto the victim. Sometimes families are silenced through financial settlements," she added.

Dr Samina Luthfa, professor of sociology at the University of Dhaka said family reluctance and distrust in the justice system continue to suppress reporting.

"This culture of impunity encourages offenders because they believe nothing will happen to them," she said, "If families or institutions try to suppress incidents through intimidation, children can easily be silenced," she said.

Educationist and professor emeritus at Brac University, Dr Manzoor Ahmed said the available figures may only represent a fraction of the actual situation because many incidents never reach the media or police.

"The real picture could be much worse," he said.

Manzoor Ahmed argued that one of the most neglected issues lies in teacher recruitment itself.

"There is virtually no assessment of whether a person has the mindset, values or temperament required to work with children," he said. "We assume teachers naturally possess these qualities, but there is no meaningful psychological evaluation process."

Dr M Nazmul Haq, former professor at the Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka said, "Mental health and psychological fitness of teachers remain an overlooked factor in discussions around violence in educational institutions. Bangladesh currently has no structured system to assess whether teachers are emotionally suited to work closely with children or manage positions of authority responsibly."

"Stress, untreated psychological conditions, authoritarian attitudes and unresolved personal frustrations can contribute to abusive behaviour in classrooms and residential institutions," he added. 

The unheard corners 

The issue becomes more complicated in the case of unregistered madrassas, particularly Qawmi institutions that operate outside much of the formal education regulatory structure. ASK's media monitoring documented at least 30 incidents of sexual violence specifically within Qawmi madrassas in 2021.

"We often avoid openly discussing the madrassa issue, and there is very little separate data available," Rasheda K Chowdhury said. "But many unregistered madrassas function with virtually no government monitoring at all."

Samina Luthfa also raised concerns about the lack of monitoring in women's madrassas and unregistered Qawmi institutions.

"In many cases, we simply do not know what is happening inside these institutions because there is so little oversight," she said. She argued that the issue should not be framed as hostility towards madrassas, but as a question of transparency and institutional accountability.

"If madrassa authorities object to criticism, then they should also demonstrate what internal measures they are taking to address these problems," she said.

Even religious scholars have raised concerns from time to time. Islamic preacher Mufti Gias Uddin Tahery vehemently criticized such behaviour at one of his waaz mahfil where he said, "Even dogs in heat don't go after the puppies. These men are worse than dogs. These vile people have shamed us (the ulema) greatly." 

Researcher and activist Mir Huzaifa Al Mamduh argued that one of the core structural problems lies in the lack of registration and oversight surrounding many madrassas. 

"There is a strong belief among many madrassa administrations that they function separately from the government — almost as a society apart," he said. "Since these institutions are associated with religion, many believe they are protected by religious authority itself. As a result, if wrongdoing occurs, they often feel they can shield themselves by invoking religion."

What other countries have done

Across South and Southeast Asia, the same combination of cultural acceptance of corporal punishment, weak institutional accountability and religious authority operating outside civil oversight has produced similar patterns. But several countries have made measurable progress. Their experiences offer a blueprint.

Nepal's approach was built on a foundation of clear law before community engagement. The legal prohibition created a reference point for NGO advocacy, teacher training and community education programmes. 

Indonesia has approached the problem through teacher behaviour change and community norm shifting rather than pure legal enforcement. A ChildFund-supported programme in Indonesian schools educated both teachers and parents about the developmental harm caused by physical punishment and trained educators in alternative classroom management techniques.

India's Ministry of Women and Child Development launched the School Safety Programme specifically to address protection from violence, including gender-based violence, within educational settings. India also legally banned corporal punishment in schools and has amended its Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to strengthen mandatory reporting obligations on educational institutions.

In the first four months of 2026, ASK has already recorded nine student torture cases and 12 sexual harassment cases by teachers. At this rate, the situation will replicate the patterns of every preceding year. The question is not whether Bangladesh's educational institutions are safe for children. Six years of data have answered that question. The question now is whether anyone in a position of institutional authority is prepared to change that answer.

Shadique Mahbub Islam is a journalist.