RECENTLY, a government high school teacher with a diploma in engineering background recounted his lifelong experience in the following way:
‘In our society, vocational education is still seen as the place for boys considered less capable — those expected to fall behind or go astray. I missed a star in SSC by only two marks, and my family forced me into polytechnic. I cried for two-three months after admission. Even my own child asked, “Why are you a vocational teacher? Why are you a diploma engineer? Why couldn’t you study at university? Didn’t you have intelligence?”’
For countless diploma-background teachers and professionals across the country, this story is painfully familiar. It reflects a century-old hierarchy that limits aspirations, mobility and dignity — a hierarchy that continues to mark technical and vocational education with stigma and assumptions of low ability, even when diploma engineers become respected teachers and professionals.
We can also consider another scenario. When an office assistant in a government department holds a master’s degree, let’s say in English, what is the social relevance of a higher-secondary-equivalent qualification like the diploma in engineering? And when engineers with bachelor’s degrees go for low-grade jobs such as craft instructors, what relevance can the diploma realistically claim? Such contradictions highlight the entrenched hierarchy between general and technical education in Bangladesh.
A system built on survival thinking
BANGLADESH’S broader education sector — not just TVET — has historically been shaped by a poverty-alleviation mindset. Policies centred on basic employment and survival produced institutions that focused mainly on producing mid-level technicians rather than aspirational learners capable of contributing to a knowledge-based economy. Within this framework, diploma in engineering became a terminal credential. Students internalised early that while their peers in general education could aim for universities, their own path was designed to end with the diploma.
This mindset no longer fits Bangladesh’s economic aspirations. As the country seeks to develop technologically with the economy being globally integrated, the limitations of this old approach have become glaringly clear.
The world is moving ahead
INTERNATIONAL trends show a notable shift towards advanced technical and professional education. The United States integrated community colleges into the broader tertiary system, supported by goals such as president Obama’s initiative to raise tertiary attainment from 41 per cent to 60 per cent by 2025 and the American Graduation Initiative, which aimed to produce five million additional community college graduates by 2020. China’s educational transformation is more striking. It was projected that by 2025, China would produce over 77,000 STEM PhDs annually compared to approximately 40,000 in the United States including its international students. China is projected to graduate a record 12.22 million university students in 2025, up by 430,000 from the previous year, demonstrating its commitment to an innovation-driven future built on higher technical skills rather than terminal diplomas. It would also introduce a ‘red-yellow card’ alert system for programmes producing graduates with low employment prospects.
During the late 1960s, South Korean business delegations reportedly visited East Pakistan to learn from its textile and steel complexes, including the Japanese-assisted Kobe Steel facility in Chattogram which underscore their focus on technical and vocational education. Presently, South Korea provides strong technical-vocational options through its vocational high schools and Korea Polytechnics. However, according to OECD’s 2025 data, 71 per cent of South Korean young adults (aged 25–34 years) hold a tertiary qualification — the highest among all OECD countries. This high level of university attainment underscores the continued prominence of higher education in South Korean society.
In the United Kingdom, degree apprenticeships — which integrate paid professional work with university qualifications — have emerged as respected routes into bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
India, where diploma engineering originated in colonial Bengal, is also rethinking its approach. Under the National Education Policy 2020, polytechnics receive minimal attention. Its existence is at threat as it is noted that the ‘present three-year diploma course may be wiped out from the Indian education sector’ (p. 47, The future of diploma engineering under NEP 2020 in Journal of Indian Education Policy Studies by S Adi) This regional trend shows how quickly South Asia is moving towards integrated higher education — leaving Bangladesh behind.
Industry 4.0 and the skills gap
WHILE ‘Industry 4.0’ is often used as a buzzword, its implications are real. Automation, AI-driven manufacturing and digital design now define global production systems. These technological shifts require workers with advanced technical, analytical and research-informed skills. Different studies highlight that Industry 4.0 demands a higher calibre of engineering education. Countries preparing for this future are expanding pathways into more advanced forms of technical and applied engineering education. Bangladesh cannot meet these challenges while treating diploma in engineering as an end rather than a beginning. The country’s current TVET structure — built on early 20th-century assumptions — cannot support the demands of a technology-driven economy.
A view from abroad
AS A Bangladeshi doctoral researcher at The University of Queensland in Australia, I have developed an understanding of how capability-focused education systems expand opportunity. They allow learners to aspire, change direction and build meaningful futures. This contrast highlights the structural imagination that Bangladesh lacks. The diploma admits tens of thousands of motivated students every year, many from hardworking families. Yet their aspirations remain constrained by policy design rather than their ability. A nation aiming to become technologically competitive cannot afford to waste such talents.
Towards a pathway of human flourishing
BANGLADESH must reconceptualise the diploma in engineering as a foundation for higher learning, not an endpoint. Vertical mobility must be institutionalised so that diploma graduates can pursue bachelor’s, master’s and even doctoral degrees. Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET), an exclusive public technical university for diploma engineers cannot absorb this demand and solve the problem; instead, it creates further marginalisation. Mainstream universities must, therefore, provide structured progression routes towards higher technical and engineering education for diploma engineers.
One promising reform is a dual-certification model within the four-year diploma programme. Under this system, students would receive a nationally recognised certificate after the first two years — equivalent to higher secondary technical education — enabling them to compete for admission to elite universities, including engineering universities. After completing the full four years of diploma study, students would earn the second qualification: the diploma in engineering. This single, minimal reform — a ‘two-plus-two’ structure with double certifications — would dismantle the diploma’s terminal status, open real academic mobility and reduce the stigma that has persisted for decades. It also aligns Bangladesh with global movements towards flexible, stackable qualifications that prepare learners for knowledge-based economies.
Polytechnics should be reformed into centres of applied research, innovation and industry collaboration. Aligning the first two years of the diploma with higher secondary education, and the final two years with university-level engineering curricula, can create meaningful equivalence and smooth vertical progression, particularly when paired with the dual-certification model. Strengthening partnerships between polytechnics and universities — through shared labs, joint programmes and credit transfer — will position the diploma within a broader, coherent post-secondary ecosystem.
Finally, TVET policy must evolve beyond job placement metrics. Education should nurture dignity, imagination and capability. A system that restricts aspiration cannot build a flourishing society.
The teacher whose voice opened this article represents many learners who enter polytechnics with hope but graduate bearing the weight of social stigma. Bangladesh cannot build a knowledge economy on an educational hierarchy that diminishes technical students. Shifting the goal of the diploma from poverty alleviation to human flourishing is not merely morally necessary — it is strategically essential.
Bangladesh has the youth, the ambition and the potential to succeed. What it needs now is the courage to redesign pathways worthy of its future.
Noor Mohammad Masum is a PhD candidate in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is an officer on special duty (deputy secretary), ministry of public administration (currently on deputation).
