Bangladesh - Constitutional & Legal Foundations

During the first 15 years of its statehood, the two significant legacies of the British rule, namely English-centered public education and parliamentary democracy, were not as beneficial in Bangladesh as they were to its immediate neighbor, India. The debates on official language and medium of instruction have been costly and difficult to resolve. In the former East Pakistan, the state language was Urdu, and not Bangla, their own mother tongue. Despite British influence, the majority of Bangladesh students (approximately 70 percent) use Bangla as their medium. The parallel institutions of religiously based education, called Madrashas use Urdu, which is vastly different from Bangla.

The legacy of parliamentary democracy, while accepted in principle from the start, has been often negated during the period of military rules, unstable governments, and other national crises. Results from 1998 through 2001 show that the educational system seems to be gradually improving in Bangladesh.