An Investigation into the Impact of Education-related Policies and Teaching Methods, School Infrastructure, and Student Performance on the Quality of Primary Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study focuses to investigate the impact of educational policy, method, and school climate on the quality of primary education in Bangladesh. All  this in the face of these abiding challenges – the fact that students come from social-economically diverse backgrounds, non-uniform, diverse pedagogical systems impart their education, and infrastructure is a barrier to the quality of education in a developing country. This study's method is quantitative in nature, and data were collected from 306 samples through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The investigation employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smart PLS 4 to examine the relationship between four exogenous constructs-Government Awareness Policies, Teaching Methods and Training, School Infrastructure, and Student Performance —and the endogenous construct of Quality of Primary Education. Results suggest that Teaching Methods and Training, Student Performance, and School Infrastructure significantly improve quality, based on the path coefficients of 0.287, 0.280, and 0.252 (p = 0.000), supporting the hypotheses accordingly. In contrast, Government Awareness Policies have no statistically significant effect (path coefficient 0.059, p = 0.301) in the model, thus rejecting the related hypothesis. The model has constructs with self-consistent indicators (Cronbach's Alpha 0.748–0.806). The research findings demonstrate that the government's involvement in the primary education sector of Bangladesh needs to be improved in terms of teachers' practices and the availability of educational facilities. It also contributes to the global issues of quality in inclusion and, therefore, SDG 4. It is a vision of the moves the policymaker could make, via potential policy options, to enhance teacher training and infrastructure.  Teacher’s World: Journal of Education and Research, 51(1), 9-29.