At least 10 colleges across the country received no students in the admission process for Class 11 in the 2026-27 academic year. Eight of the institutions are under the Barishal Education Board.
The colleges began operations with education board approval, but later could not be brought under the MPO payroll system because of various complications. Teachers who had joined without pay in the hope of MPO inclusion eventually moved to other institutions. As a result, academic activities stalled amid an acute teacher shortage. The eight colleges under the Barishal Education Board ultimately met the same fate.
The institutions under the Barishal board are Barguna Residential Model College in Dakshin Monsatali of Barguna Sadar upazila; Kadbhanu Memorial Secondary Girls’ School and College in Betagi; Kathalia Secondary Girls’ School and College in Jhalakathi; Purba Jalabari Adarsha High School and College and Sehangal School and College in Swarupkathi of Pirojpur; Pajakhali College in Lohalia union of Patuakhali Sadar; Panpatti College in Galachipa; and EGS Shikkha Niketan in Saina Raghunathpur union of Kaukhali, Pirojpur. Five of them had been upgraded from secondary schools to higher secondary level, while the other three were established as colleges.
An investigation found that several institutions stopped academic activities between 2023 and 2024 after operating for several consecutive years. Officials at the institutions said the colleges mainly could not be sustained because teachers and employees were not included in MPO and because of local political conflicts. Applications were later submitted to the education board to cancel teaching permission. But because the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, or BANBEIS, list was not updated, the institutions were again shown as studentless at the higher secondary level this year.
One such institution is Kadbhanu Secondary Girls’ School beside the Barishal-Barguna regional road at Chandukhali Bazar in Betagi. The school was founded in 1974 and upgraded to higher secondary level in 2016. But Class 11 admissions were stopped in 2024. Head teacher Shamima Nasrin said the college section had been opened on the expectation that about 100 students passed SSC from the school each year. But they were eventually forced to shut the college section because of a shortage of classrooms.
Local residents gave a different account. They said founder freedom fighter Mosharraf Hossain established a degree college in his own name beside the school. SSC graduates were enrolled in the higher secondary section of that college, leaving the school’s college section facing a student shortage. The school college section had only one examinee in 2025.
Jalilur Rahman, the recently retired head teacher of Kathalia Secondary Girls’ School and College, said the institution was upgraded to higher secondary level in 2014. Teachers from some nearby schools taught without pay as lecturers. But after MPO inclusion did not happen, those teachers stopped communicating. To keep the college activities going, teachers from the school itself began taking higher secondary classes. At one stage, the students themselves began asking why schoolteachers would teach at the college. No students were admitted after 2024 for that reason.
Md. Moniruzzaman, head teacher of Sehangal Secondary School in Swarupkathi, said businessman AKM Shamsudoha Faruk, a son of the area living in Dhaka, opened a higher secondary section at the school as a donor for personal publicity. But although the education board gave only initial teaching permission, no other recognition or assistance was received. At one stage, the donor left when he could not bear operating costs, and the college section closed four years ago. In the 2024 higher secondary certificate, or HSC, examination, only two students took part from there and one passed.
In the same upazila, Purba Jalabari Secondary School, founded in 1953, declined to give specific information on when it was upgraded to a college and why it closed. Head teacher Sanjay Kumar eventually said college activities began about 30 years ago but were suspended several times in between. The institution’s website shows that from 2014 to 2024, 155 of 211 students passed higher secondary examinations. Six students took the exam in 2024.
Tanvir Ahmed, head teacher of EGS Shikkha Niketan in Kaukhali near Swarupkathi, blamed local village factionalism for the closure of its college section. He said one side went from village to village telling students not to enroll. The same group applied to the board to cancel teaching permission. Because of these factors, no students have been admitted for three years.
Founder and Principal Md. Ashraf Ali blamed other teachers at Patuakhali’s Pajakhali College for the institution’s deadlock. The college was established in 2022. He said that when he went to the Tabligh Jamaat several times, teachers maneuvered to leave the college without students. As a result, no students have been admitted for three years. An initiative has been taken to reopen the college with a recommendation from the local member of parliament.
Barishal Education Board Chairman Prof. Abu Taher Mohammad Rashedul Islam said he joined three months ago and therefore does not yet know all the details about the studentless higher secondary colleges. As the admission process has just been completed, a list of these institutions will now be prepared and recommendations will be sent to the ministry for necessary action, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report