'Donor logic', NGOs, the ruling elite and the decolonisation of education in Bangladesh

This chapter critically examines how education has been used as an instrument through which state and international machineries have enacted and realised their neoliberal agendas and political priorities in the context of Bangladesh. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the struggle between private and public bodies of interest and the roles local and international politics as well as donor agendas have assumed in establishing their priorities and vested interests. The revival of neo-colonial agendas and their uprising in the 80s following the influx of foreign aid into the country continued to shape and influence the education system towards vocationalisation, focussing heavily on the acquisition of life skills for an increasingly market-oriented society. This paper argues that the rhetorically ubiquitous notion of the decolonisation of education in Bangladesh, which was enunciated in the first National Education Commission in 1974, became a myth in the post-1980 period, and instead, the education system has developed within its colonial legacy and is still being used as a means of gaining political and economic interests through the legitimation of ‘donor logic’, as well as the priorities of NGOs and the local ruling elite.