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Polytechnic students have been protesting since 16 April to realise their six-point demand, which includes the cancellation of a High Court verdict that allowed the promotion of craft instructors to the post of the junior instructor, age restrictions on new admissions, and legal protection of technical graduates' job prospects. They are also demanding the formation of a separate Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, as well as a dedicated technical university and the formation of a reform committee to overhaul the technical education sector in line with the market needs. After protesting on the streets for weeks, they met with the Education Advisor, but were apparently dissatisfied with the outcome of the meeting and have decided to enforce a complete shutdown of all government and non-government polytechnic institutions across the country since April 29. While some of their demands are seemingly impractical , their protests are rooted in genuine despair over limited opportunities and a lack of meaningful reform in the technical education sector.
Expansion of technical education has been one of the focus areas of the governments in the last few decades. As a result, technical education has been expanding on the paper, but the reality tells a different story. While the number of both government and private polytechnic institutions has grown, the quality of education remains stagnant-plagued by outdated curricula, teacher shortages, under-equipped labs, and so on. Worse still, many of the private polytechnic institutes just issue certificates without providing any real training. Many, therefore, complain that the technical and vocational education sector is failing to produce graduates with the skills needed in a rapidly evolving job market.
While job placement rates for polytechnic students are significantly higher than those pursuing general subjects, alarmingly, low wages remain a major concern. According to a 2024 study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), nearly 73 per cent of diploma graduates earn less than Tk 10,000 per month. This troubling situation stems largely from inadequate skill development and a serious mismatch between the curriculum and industry demands. Such disheartening outcomes have left many students feeling deceived, while deterring prospective students from pursuing diplomas altogether. In fact, a recent report in a national daily noted that up to 60 per cent of seats in technical institutions remain vacant.
This gloomy picture of the country's technical education sector is all the more concerning in the context of the growing global demand for skilled technical workers. Countries like Japan and Germany, which rose from the ashes of war to become industrial leaders, owe much of their success to robust technical education systems. In these countries, technical and vocational training enjoys high enrolment rates-73 per cent in Japan and 71 per cent in Germany-alongside industry-integrated curricula and hands-on learning. Other Asian nations such as Malaysia, Singapore, China, and Vietnam have also leveraged technical education to drive rapid industrialisation and socioeconomic advancement.
In contrast, Bangladesh remains a net importer of foreign skilled labour, especially in sectors like garments, construction, telecommunications, and energy. This outflow of foreign exchange not only underscores our failure to cultivate a competitive local workforce, but also weakens national self-reliance.
The time, therefore, has come for serious and systemic reform. The demand for a reform commission, as raised by the protesting students, is both timely and necessary. Bangladesh urgently needs a national strategy to modernise technical education-one that includes revising curricula in collaboration with industry stakeholders, investing in infrastructure, recruiting and training qualified instructors, and integrating new technologies into classroom and lab environments. In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution-dominated by artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, and quantum computing-Bangladesh cannot afford to train students using decades-old content and methodologies. Failure to act now would not only waste human potential but also risk widening the chasm between education and employment, which the nation can no longer afford to bear.