Education minister inaugurates Khan Academy Bangladesh expansion

Minister of Education and Primary and Mass Education ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon has inaugurated expansion of Khan Academy Bangladesh to 100 schools in Bogura, Netrokona and Cox’s Bazar.

He announced the inauguration at a function held at Rural Development Academy (RDA) conference hall in Bogura on Tuesday (13 October) alongside senior Education Ministry officials and SAJIDA Foundation Deputy CEO Md Fazlul Hoque.

Khan Academy, a USA-based global nonprofit educational organisation, in partnership with SAJIDA Foundation, has been offering digital education on math courses at 115 schools in seven districts - Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Cumilla, Narsingdi, Chandpur and Panchagarh - with a teacher-first approach, making lessons enjoyable and effective. Through Tuesday’s launch it is expanding the programme to 100 more schools in the three districts.

SAJIDA Foundation launched Khan Academy Bangladesh in 2025 and aims to expand to cover 21,000 schools by 2030.

According to a research conducted by the Institute of Education & Research at the University of Dhaka, students under the Khan Academy pilot project displayed mathematical skills improvement by nine times, concentration on learning improved by six times, and capability of application increased by 70 percent.

Overcoming fear of maths

The minister held the weakness in mathematics mostly responsible for the high rate of failure in the Secondary School Certificate examinations. He said had the students been good at mathematics and English, the SSC results would have been better.

The minister appreciated Khan Academy Bangladesh for running the programme on mathematics for the students in Bangladesh and said his ministry would extend all necessary cooperation to the organisation to further expand its programme.

He said the government has given highest priority to education which is why it has allocated the highest amount of funds to the sector in the national budget for the current fiscal year.

Bogra-6 constituency MP Rezaul Karim Badsha, Education Ministry Secretary (routine charge) Dr Sardar Md Keramat Ali, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) Director General Prof Dr Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, and Dhaka University Institute of Education and Research (IER) Professor Dr Shah Shamim Ahmed spoke at the event as the special guests.

Khan Academy Bangladesh Chief Executive Officer Azwa Nayeem also spoke while Rural Development Academy (RDA), Bogura acting Director General Dr Md Abdul Majid was present, among others.

Headmasters of 50 secondary schools in Bogura, selected for orientation towards the Khan Academy programme, joined the launching event.

Rezaul Karim Badsha MP thanked Khan Academy and SAJIDA Foundation for choosing Bogura as one of the three new districts for the expansion of their programme and expressed the hope that other upazilas in the district would come under the coverage.

Education Ministry Secretary (routine charge) Dr Sardar Md Keramat Ali in his speech said that the ministry would extend all sorts of cooperation to Khan Academy’s efforts to expand its programme across the country. He said the ministry would explore new areas of cooperation with the organisation.

DSHE Director General Dr Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel said around 60 percent of students fail in class promotion exams at the secondary school level mainly because of weakness in maths and English.

He said Khan Academy has helped the students where they have operations already to overcome the weakness and made them interested in maths.

“We wish to expand the Khan Academy programme to all the schools and all districts. And if we are able to do that, the failure rate at the secondary level will go down by 50 percent and the education landscape of Bangladesh would change,” he said.

SAJIDA Foundation Deputy Chief Executive Officer Md Fazlul Hoque said, “Our vision is to scale the Khan Academy Bangladesh initiative to every secondary school in the country. Achieving this ambition, however, is not possible alone. Strong government support and integration into the national education system are essential to making this vision a reality.”