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Episode Summary

The Cost of a Grade: What Pressure and Progress Really Mean for Students in Bangladesh

In this episode of EBTD Research Bites, we unpack the real emotional and systemic cost of Bangladesh’s testing culture — from the early years of schooling right through to the Secondary School Certificate (SSC).

Drawing on the landmark study Testing Times: The Effective Impact of Tests in Bangladeshi Schools, we explore how an entire education system built around high-stakes exams and GPA scores has shaped a collective climate of anxiety and hyper-competition. While exams aim to measure learning, this research reveals how they often narrow it — reinforcing inequality, fuelling the private tutoring “shadow system,” and creating what the authors call an affective atmosphere of pressure that touches students, teachers, and parents alike.

We ask tough but necessary questions:

  • What happens when success becomes synonymous with one exam score?

  • How does data — grades, GPAs, pass rates — become a tool of both power and pressure?

  • And crucially, how can educators in Bangladesh begin to rebuild confidence in classrooms where progress, not panic, defines learning?

Through evidence-based reflection, we connect this research to practical action for teachers and school leaders across Bangladesh. Discover how to make assessment more formative, more humane, and more meaningful — and why the shift from grades to growth could transform both wellbeing and learning outcomes.

If you want to go further, explore our companion resources on the EBTD site:

Together, these resources — and the voices of our teachers — highlight one shared message: real progress in Bangladesh’s education system starts when we measure what truly matters.

Key Takeaways

🎯 Key Takeaways

  • High-stakes testing in Bangladesh carries an emotional cost.
    The Testing Times study reveals how the exam-centred culture creates an affective atmosphere of anxiety that permeates classrooms, homes, and entire communities.

  • Grades act as a cultural currency — not just a measure.
    The GPA 5, especially the golden A+, has become a symbol of social mobility and family pride, reinforcing competition rather than collaboration or curiosity.

  • The “shadow system” of private tutoring deepens inequality.
    Families pay multiple times for education — school fees, in-house coaching, and private tutors — reflecting systemic underinvestment and inequity rather than true choice.

  • Students themselves recognise the limits of rote learning.
    Many describe memorising content only to forget it immediately after exams, calling for richer, more descriptive assessments that capture genuine learning progress.

  • There is a growing appetite for change.
    Emerging voices among students and educators in Bangladesh want assessments that reward understanding, creativity, and skill — not just short-term performance.

  • Systemic reform is both possible and urgent.
    With the new curriculum and renewed policy interest, Bangladesh has a window of opportunity to shift from exam anxiety to meaningful progress — but it requires collective action from schools, policymakers, and teacher trainers.

Research Notes & Links

Research Notes

Primary Source:

Testing Times: The Effective Impact of Tests in Bangladeshi Schools
International Journal of Educational Development (2025)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103239

Overview:
This peer-reviewed study investigates how Bangladesh’s exam-driven education culture affects students, teachers, and parents beyond academic outcomes. It combines qualitative interviews and policy analysis across several districts to explore the emotional (“affective”) consequences of constant testing. The research positions assessment not as a neutral instrument but as a social force that shapes classroom relationships, student wellbeing, and broader educational equity.

Key Research Insights:

  • Bangladesh’s school system operates as a cascade of assessments, culminating in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC).

  • The study identifies an “affective atmosphere” — a shared climate of anxiety, competition, and perceived scarcity of opportunity.

  • Tutoring dependence (“shadow education”) is both symptom and driver of systemic inequality.

  • Parents and students view GPA 5 — especially the “golden” GPA 5 — as a socially necessary credential, tied to identity and status.

  • The emotional toll can manifest as mental distress, family strain, and reduced intrinsic motivation to learn.

  • Interviews reveal a countercurrent of resistance, with students expressing a desire for assessments that reflect learning progress and practical skill development rather than rote performance.

  • The authors argue for curricular reform and investment in public education as the foundation for healthier, more equitable assessment practices.

Why It Matters for Bangladesh:
The study reframes national debates about “quality education” by showing that improving outcomes isn’t only about content or pedagogy — it’s also about changing the emotional conditions of schooling. For teacher-training, curriculum design, and policy reform, these findings underscore the need to measure what truly matters: progress, not panic.

Transcript

Welcome to the deep dive.
Here we take often dense academic research and, well, we try to turn it into clear practical insights for your classroom.

That’s right.

Especially if you’re a teacher or school leader right here in Bangladesh looking to build, you know, a more inclusive, more resilient learning environment. Think of this as your evidence shortcut.

Mhm.

Today, we’re diving into some really crucial research. It asks a powerful question — simple on the surface:
What’s the true cost of assessment in Bangladeshi schools, particularly when we look beyond just the marks, the scores on the paper?

Yeah. Beyond the number.

Exactly.
Our mission is to unpack the findings from a paper called Testing Times: The Effective Impact of Tests in Bangladeshi Schools.
We want to turn this into knowledge you can actually use.

And it’s based on some solid fieldwork.

It really is. It draws on deep interviews — students, teachers, parents, even senior ministry officials — across different regions too, not just one area.

Which gives it weight.

It does.
And the big takeaway: we’ve seriously underestimated the emotional impact — what the research calls the affective impact — of all this testing.

That’s the core finding really.

We’re going to explore how this relentless focus on high-stakes exams, especially the Secondary School Certificate (SSC), creates this almost crippling culture of anxiety — and how that anxiety often masks deeper systemic problems in education.

The Power of Data and the Emotional Climate

It’s fascinating actually if you look at it through, let’s say, a critical data studies lens — how we use numbers, how power operates through data.
Well, test results often get treated as neutral, objective facts, right?

Yeah. Just a grade.

Just a grade.
But this research powerfully demonstrates they are anything but neutral. They are highly charged social tools. They don’t just reflect the system — they actively create an emotional climate.

An affective atmosphere.

Precisely.
That palpable affective atmosphere in schools — understanding that atmosphere, that pervasive feeling of pressure — that’s really the key to grasping why teaching and learning can feel so challenging right now.

A Cascade of Tests

Okay, so let’s unpack this atmosphere then.
Because the research makes it clear this pressure cooker starts early. It describes the whole system as a cascade of tests.
It sounds exhausting just reading about it.

It really does.

You’ve got monthly tests, then half-yearly exams, yearly exams — and they’re all framed as just steps towards the big one, the SSC at the end of Year 10, the exam that basically decides your college path.

It looms large.

It does.
When they talk about affect, they’re digging deeper than just feeling happy or sad about getting a B instead of an A.

Right? It’s not just simple emotion.

No. It’s described as this visceral thing — something you feel in your gut, a kind of collective condition that shapes how everyone interacts: students with teachers, kids with parents, even students with each other.

And that collective condition, overwhelmingly, is one of anxiety.
The students interviewed — they get it. They know these tests are just part of the system, normalised supposedly for capacity building.

Right? That’s the official line.

That’s the line. But they admit it just generates this relentless pressure, this constant worry.

You know, I found their main coping strategy really—well, heartbreakingly simple.

Mhm.

When they were asked how they deal with all this anxiety, their main answer was basically to tell themselves: “Just read attentively.”

Just focus harder.

Yeah. It’s like admitting the only response they have within this high-pressure system is to push themselves even harder inside that same stressful box.

Yeah, because they know deep down those grades are the absolute key to getting into college.

It’s the only path they see.

Pressure vs. Drive

But let’s pause on that.
Isn’t a little pressure good? Doesn’t it motivate? Why are the researchers specifically calling this an affective anxiety and not just, you know, healthy academic drive?

That’s a really important distinction — and it comes down to context.
The research stresses that this intense testing system exists against a backdrop of really serious underinvestment in public education.

Okay.

We’re talking about a huge system — over 38,000 government primary schools — but public spending on education was way down at around 1.3% of GDP back in 2019. That’s very low.

Wow. Okay.

So, when the public system is chronically under-resourced, what do the scores really reflect?
Is it genuine learning quality, or is it more like desperation — a desperate scramble to get ahead in a system perceived as maybe failing many?

And then add this: only about 3% of institutions are government-run.
The vast majority — 97% — are private or non-government.
So these high-stakes tests become the single bottleneck, the filter everyone has to fight through to access the few high-quality, affordable public options later on.

That’s not healthy drive.
The research suggests it’s hyper-competition born out of systemic scarcity.

The GPA as Cultural Currency

That context is crucial — and it sets us up perfectly for the next point:
how these test results stop being just scores and actually become a kind of cultural currency.

Absolutely.
It’s all about hitting one target — the perfect GPA.
That means a GPA of 5, which is 80% or higher. But even that sometimes isn’t the real goal.

There’s another level.

There is.
The ultimate prize for many is the golden GPA 5 — that means getting an A+ in every single subject.
That’s often what’s needed for the best scholarships, for priority access to the top universities.

And we know exactly why this GPA 5, especially the golden version, becomes this ultimate currency.
It’s seen as the non-negotiable entry ticket to the most prestigious places — DU, Dhaka University, the medical colleges.

Places that promise quality and opportunity.

Right. These are institutions seen as offering not just quality but also relative affordability compared to many private options.
There’s a quote in the research that just captures the sheer weight of this for students:

“The SSC — that single gateway test — is the most important part of life and the necessary ticket to security and a happy life.”

Wow.

They’re not being dramatic.
That one exam score feels like it carries the entire burden of their future social standing and economic prospects.

And when a single number holds that much power, the emotional toll can become devastatingly real.
The research includes this incredibly powerful and very sad anecdote shared by a parent — about the recent suicide of one of their daughter’s friends — directly linked to the unbearable pressure to get that golden A+ slam.

It’s just chilling.

When we talk about data power, we often think abstractly — spreadsheets, policy decisions — systems level.
But this is where that data becomes an intense, deeply personal, and ultimately destructive experience.
It literally broke a young person.

It did.

And this terrible instance brings us right back to the systemic function of this intense focus.
Celebrating the few who achieve that GPA 5 — holding them up — it actually serves a purpose for the system itself.

Perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not.

So, it becomes a convenient, very public way to legitimise an education system that might otherwise be seen as underperforming.
By focusing all the energy, all the public conversation, on these high scores…

On the winners.

Exactly — on the winners.
The system effectively deflects attention away from broader, possibly more difficult questions about the day-to-day quality of teaching in most classrooms or the systemic lack of resources.
The whole conversation shifts to who scored well, not how well the average student is actually being educated.

The Shadow System: Tutoring and Inequality

Okay.
So if the system maybe inadvertently deflects attention from quality issues, what does that mean for where students actually go to try and get the education they need?

Well, it means the testing culture fuels something else entirely.

The shadow system.

Precisely — this massive parallel system of private tutoring and coaching centres.

And the research suggests this isn’t just a small side thing.
The numbers are staggering.
Tutoring isn’t just common in Bangladesh — it’s deeply, deeply embedded in the culture.
The paper suggests the proportion of students using some form of tutoring might be the highest among Asia-Pacific countries studied.

In some schools, particularly the high-performing ones that everyone wants to get into, researchers found that almost all students attend tutoring.
It’s just expected.

And this is where the real cost — financial and maybe moral — hits families so hard, right?

The system ends up making them pay multiple times for something that ideally should be covered in school.

Yes, that’s a key point.

There’s this one anecdote in the research that captures the sheer injustice of it perfectly.
It’s from a senior NGO officer, clearly frustrated, who felt forced to pay for the same education three separate times.

Three times. Think about that.

Okay, break it down. What were the three payments?

First, the regular school tuition fee.
Second, an additional fee for after-school coaching sessions run by the very same teacher who was supposed to teach that subject effectively during the normal school day.
And third, because even that wasn’t enough, a completely separate private coach hired externally to patch up the shortcomings of the first two attempts.

That’s so cruel.

And the most revealing part of his story — the part that really shows the pressure — he said he felt bound to enrol his kids in that extra school coaching, not because he thought it was great, but because he feared a different kind of treatment mechanism if his children didn’t participate.

So subtle pressure — but maybe not so subtle.

It feels like leverage, doesn’t it?
The school system, or at least parts of it, potentially weaponising that affective anxiety — parents’ anxiety — to ensure participation in its own paid after-hours offerings.

And this financial burden, the research argues, isn’t really about parental choice.
It’s presented as choice, maybe, but it’s driven by systemic failures.

Root causes?
Insufficient public investment, not enough fully qualified teachers, huge syllabuses crammed into short terms, and this incredibly competitive exam-obsessed culture.
And crucially — inequality.

This whole tutoring structure is inherently discriminatory.
It’s only accessible to families who can afford the extra fees.
So this high-stakes data regime, this GPA chase, doesn’t level the playing field — it amplifies existing inequalities.

A Countercurrent: Students Who Resist

Okay, this feels quite heavy.
But here’s where maybe we can start to see a way forward, especially for us as educators.
Despite this dominant culture of anxiety, the research also found evidence of a strong countercurrent — an alternative affect, they call it.

Yes. A resistance almost.

A challenge to the status quo coming from within the system — from the students themselves.
And maybe that’s the seed of hope we need to nurture.

Absolutely.

For instance, they found students who are already looking beyond the grades — students actively prioritising actual learning and developing real skills over just chasing that GPA 5.

That’s encouraging.

Yeah.
There’s this great example of a student wanting to be a web designer or game developer.
They explicitly denied that degrees or test results were the most important thing anymore.
They argued that in today’s economy, practical skill is what really matters. They could see past the GPA fixation.

That’s insightful.
And this self-awareness also extends to how they view their own study habits.

They know the learning isn’t really sticking.
Students openly confessed that a lot of their studying was just about cramming information overnight — simply to overflow the content onto the exam paper the next day.

Just get it out.

Exactly — and then forget about it almost immediately after.
They’re literally calling out the pointlessness of rote memorisation solely for exam performance.

And that frustration led to something really interesting when the researchers prompted them about assessment itself.

Some students, when asked, didn’t just complain — they expressed a desire for something different.
Not necessarily abolishing exams altogether, but maybe a description of their learning journey rather than just a single grade.

That’s fascinating.

It shows they felt the grade is not everything.
They admitted they were just accustomed to the circumstances of the CGPA system — kind of stuck in it — but they didn’t believe it was the best way to show what they knew or could do.

And that finding feels crucial.
These students sound ready for a change.
They see the limitations themselves.

Towards Reform

The potential is definitely there.
The researchers suggest that the proposed new curriculum, if implemented properly and with the right support, could reduce reliance on external tutoring by shifting the focus away from high-stakes exams and back toward quality, engaging learning inside the regular classroom.

It would provide that richer, more descriptive assessment that students are asking for — rebuilding confidence in the school system itself, so tutoring feels less necessary.

If we connect all these threads back to the bigger picture, the research highlights a core conflict:
You have this intense affective intensity — this cloud of anxiety generated by high-stakes tests — and this whole system props up a kind of meritocratic idea: the best and brightest rise based on scores.

The myth of meritocracy, some might say.

Right.
But this logic, the research argues, often hides deeper issues: systemic underinvestment, profound inequalities.
The focus on test results becomes a distraction from the fundamental need for better quality, properly resourced public education for everyone.

Final Reflection

So for you listening as a teacher or school leader in Bangladesh, the takeaway is this:
The pervasive culture of anxiety around exams and GPA is one of your biggest competitors.

Competing with real learning.

Exactly.
Tackling that tutoring and cramming culture means actively proving, day in and day out, that the teaching and learning happening inside your classroom is high-quality, engaging, and ultimately more valuable for your students’ future than rote memorisation after school hours.

The research reminds us that this anxiety isn’t just individual — it’s a collective condition.
To change learning outcomes, we may first need to intentionally change that emotional condition in our schools and classrooms.

Yes.
Creating an environment where rich descriptions of learning progress are valued alongside grades — where practical skills like web design and critical thinking are celebrated — maybe even more than just the final numerical GPA.

Build resilience through a different focus.
Build confidence in the process, not just the result.

A Moment for Change

Okay, let’s leave our listeners with a final thought to chew on.
The source mentions, almost hopefully, that recent political shifts in Bangladesh might just open a small window — an opportunity for genuine educational reform.

A potential moment for change.

So the question for you as an educational leader trying to make a difference is this:

How can we collectively seize this potential moment?
How can we actively work to shift that collective condition away from suffocating anxiety about scores and instead foster an educative, affective, atmospheric environment — one that genuinely prioritises deep understanding, applicable skills, and critical thinking?
How do we build back that fundamental confidence in our school system, lesson by lesson?

Something to really consider as you plan for your students this week.

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