29/04/2026
The other day, an eye-opening figure surfaced: sitting for a single O-Level exam through the British Council now costs around BDT 25-30,000 taka per subject and with Lab its 30-35,000.
From an Educator and parent's perspective, the math is staggering. A child typically takes 6–7 subjects, meaning families pay BDT 2 to 2.5 lakh—just for exams.
Not school fees. Not coaching, books, or uniforms. Just registration, exam venue and paper-checking.
The cost is expected to rise 3-5 thousand every year - a heavy burden for any middle-class family.
Yet parents don't hesitate. For them, this isn't merely an expense—it's their child's future.
But zoom out, and the picture changes !!
Around 10,000 students are sitting for just one session in 2026. That means BDT 245 crore paid by families—and earned by the British Council—in a single session. Across two sessions a year, O-Levels alone generate roughly BDT 490 crore. If we exclude the Exam venue and invigilation payment still it’s more than BDT 350 crore.
Add A-Levels, IELTS, and other offerings, and the annual figure could easily exceed BDT 1,000 crore.
This is no longer just about individual sacrifice. It's about how much money flows out of the country—and what that reveals about Bangladesh's education ecosystem.
If the national curriculum matched global standards more closely, parents might not feel this pressure. But today, they do.
Because when quality education becomes this expensive, it doesn't just strain families. It determines who gets to dream—and who doesn't.
And the hardest part? Parents make the sacrifices, while a large share of that value is captured by a foreign system.
Maybe it's time to seriously invest in strengthening Bangladesh's own education system—so this dependence becomes a choice, not a necessity.
