Education in Bangladesh has three major stages: primary, secondary and higher education. Primary education starts at the age of six with a five-year cycle while secondary education is seven years with three sub-stages:

			three years of junior secondary
			two years of secondary
			two years of higher secondary

These stages relate to the following age groups:

			11-13 (grades 7-8)
			14-15 (grades 9-10)
			16-17 years (grades 11-12

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET)

Secondary education has three major streams: General, technical vocational and madrasha. Formal technical vocational education starts after grade eight with a two-year course in basic skills. This can be followed by certificate level courses or Secondary School Certificate Vocational (SSC Voc) courses which also require completion of grade eight. Qualifying with a SSC general or vocational course can lead to Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) General, HSC Vocational or HSC Business Management.

For the latter two options, post-secondary TVET courses are four-year diploma courses run at Polytechnic Institutes. In theory, it is possible for HSC (Voc) students to progress into General Higher Education at a university. However, in reality, competition for these places caps the number of students making this transition.

Higher Education

General higher secondary school is followed by graduate level education in general, technical, engineering, agriculture, business studies, and medical streams requiring five-six years to obtain a Masters degree. Higher education has three streams: general (inclusive of pure and applied science, arts, business and social science), madrasha and technology education. Technology education includes agriculture, engineering, medical, textile, leather technology and ICT. Madrashas function parallel to the three major stages and have additional emphasis on religious studies.

Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions

Institutions that offer SSC (Voc) courses include 500 secondary schools run by the Ministry of Education (MOE), 64 vocational training institutes run by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), 12 technical training centres (run by the DTE) and approximately 14,000 private training institutions.

Polytechnics offer post-secondary level diplomas. Other ministries (e.g. agriculture) also have their own training institutions for which they are responsible.

NGOs also offer vocational education and training, although there are no figures available concerning the percentage of overall training they provide.

Management

The management of the education system falls under two ministries - the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Ministry of Education. Overall there are more than 17 million students at the primary level, and over 5.6 million at the secondary level. Enrolments at the tertiary level are relatively small but growing rapidly.

The Ministry of Education is responsible for secondary, vocational and tertiary education. The MoE is aiming to move towards a devolved system of governance. Under this new system, central government will be responsible for formulating policies, financing, setting quality standards, and monitoring and evaluation, while lower levels of government will be responsible for administering the system.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) is the department of the MoE that is responsible for the management and administration of technical and vocational institutions. It has Inspectorate Offices at the Divisional Headquarters.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) provides skills training through its technical centres.