In 1966, during the 14th session of its General Conference, Unesco declared September 8 as International Literacy Day (ILD). The theme for the day this year—”Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity”—has profound significance for Bangladesh and South Asia. The three-part emphasis on literacy skills highlights how foundational reading and writing skills intersect with human dignity, sustainable environmental action, and inclusive economic growth.
Various literacy rates for Bangladesh are provided by different sources, pointing to problems about reliability of data, the methodology applied to estimate these figures, and the significance of the statistics for the wellbeing of people and national development. Recent declared statistics for adult literacy (ages 15+) range from 74 percent to 79 percent. The 2022 Population and Housing Census report put the figure at 74.66 percent. Meanwhile, the World Bank, based on various official data and its own analysis, reported adult literacy in Bangladesh to be 79 percent for the same year. In 2025, Bangladesh Economic Survey 2024 found the literacy rate for the population aged 7 and older to be 77.9 percent.
Apart from the varying age ranges, the self-reporting methodology (wherein one simply declares if they can read and write a simple sentence) used for assessing literacy levels casts doubt about the functional value of the published numbers. The Campaign for Popular Education’s (CAMPE) Education Watch reports based on “tested literacy” have shown that the functionally useful rate of literacy is about half of the officially announced estimates.
Last year, the Health and Morbidity Status Survey (HMSS) released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics reported that 23.5 percent of the surveyed population never attended school. Another 18.9 percent attended primary school but did not progress further. Altogether, 42.5 percent of the adult population remained at or below Class-5 education level.
According to the Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE), between 1990 and 2025, at least 11 projects of various sizes and durations were undertaken to improve literacy levels, return dropouts to school, and expand adult education. Among these, the Basic Literacy Programme, also known as the Total Literacy Movement (TLM), was launched in the late 1990s when upazilas were declared “free of illiteracy” by administrative diktat—not based on an assessment of learners’ skills. Over the following decade, the Post-Literacy and Continuing Education (PLCE) project was undertaken. One would presume that literacy had been achieved and the need was for a “post-literacy” effort! Simultaneously, a Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROSC) project and a Basic Education for Hard-to-Reach Working Urban Children (BEHTRWUC) project were aimed at adolescents left behind by primary schools.
Despite these initiatives, nearly half the population today has lower than primary education or no formal education at all. Arguably, as noted above, three quarters of the population have not acquired functional levels of foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
The millions of adults and out-of-school youth who lack basic literacy and numeracy struggle to adapt to changing job markets or climate crises. Embracing a lifelong learning continuum means treating reading, writing, and arithmetic as an evolving foundation that grows with a citizen over their lifetime.
Given the current reality, technology could help reshape how foundational skills are taught, moving away from rigid, under-resourced classrooms towards flexible learning environments.
Smartphone and internet penetration in Bangladesh is extensive. Initiatives to repurpose mobile phones to enhance learning have proven effective. Literacy programmes could therefore leverage simple, gamified apps that teach Bangla phonics and practical calculations with interfaces people already use every day. Digital literacy programmes could also teach reading and arithmetic in the context of making MFS transactions, farming applications, and government service portals. For both adults and children, government agencies and NGOs could distribute high-quality audio and video lessons directly to learners via cloud-based hubs, complementing and supporting school teachers and community facilitators.
To embark on this tech-driven approach to cultivating lifelong learning, four catalytic measures could be considered.
First, subsidised smartphones for learners. The government can partner with mobile network operators to distribute subsidised smartphones which would be pre-loaded with foundational literacy and numeracy learning applications for low-income adults.
Second, micro-credentialing of learners. A digital certification system can be established that breaks learning into small, achievable milestones (e.g. modular short courses on mobile financial literacy or fertilizer use for rice varieties). Completing these modules may directly qualify learners for micro-loans or government livelihood grants. These may be linked to government’s family cards or farmers’ cards.
Third, network of smart Community Learning Centres (CLCs). Rural libraries and local centres may be upgraded to digital hubs which would provide community access to offline digital repositories, solar-powered charging stations, and basic internet access for peer-led learning.
Fourth, NGO-private sector collaboration. Major NGOs, together with local tech startups, should co-design localised learning materials, ensuring that youth and adult education aligns with the national data infrastructure.
In order to make this transition from rigid and poorly performing schools and literacy courses to a dynamic lifelong learning network that can carry out catalytic measures, the government’s regulatory bodies must make some operational shifts.
Additionally, the BNFE should shift from being a provider of services to the role of a regulator, acting as an overseeing body that sets standards for digital adult education and certifies and regulates NGO-run platforms. It may also collaborate with capable organisations to develop digital education units staffed by specialised software developers, instructional designers, and data analysts to manage cloud learning content. It may also build a database linked to NID cards to track the development of adults’ skills over time.
The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) needs to ensure that a portion of the education budget is used to systematically scale up technology-driven learning, including remedial learning, as part of the planned primary education curriculum overhaul. The ministry should take the lead in institutionalising climate-resilient education services by integrating non-formal, digital learning contingencies into the standard policy so that education in remote areas does not stop due to climate-related disruptions.
Education-focused NGOs have to be viewed as strategic partners by the government, rather than external entities, in the execution of the 2028 curricular reforms. And because the formal schooling system faces human resource-based and infrastructural limits, government authorities need to work with NGOs to serve left-out and dropped-out students, as well as to reach marginalised communities.
NGOs in Bangladesh possess a long, globally recognised history of running non-formal education networks. Under a new reform momentum, this capacity can be used with government support to build a network of smart CLCs.
The ideas broached above are not in conflict with the education reform initiatives currently under consideration by the government. Some creative steps and collaborative thinking by policymakers now could bring real positive change in the years to come.
Dr Manzoor Ahmed is professor emeritus at Brac University, chair of Bangladesh Early Childhood Development Network (BEN), and adviser to Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE). Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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