Modernization of primary school administration in Bangladesh: The case of Upazila education in traditional culture

This is a study in education administrative structure. It is an investigation of a modern upazila parishad (county council) and deals with modernization of primary school administration in the traditional culture of Bangladesh in the light of Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy. The study explores some of the reasons why the policy promoting universal primary education (recently enacted as compulsory mass education) fails to educate the nation's children.;The research for this thesis is primarily qualitative and the methods of data collection consists of document study, interview, and participant-observation. The year long study shows what can happen in a country like Bangladesh when it imposes Western forms of primary schooling on local populations. It also shows that a complete understanding of administrative practices must be fundamentally grounded in the subjective experiences of the participants in such modernization efforts. The study describes how the wholesale imposition of bureaucratic principles based on mechanical values squeeze out human values in school organizations.;The bureaucratization of schooling itself continues to be the source of many problems and ultimately causes many students to stay away from school or create difficulties for students in their attempts to master the curriculum if they do stay. The study also shows how school organizations, like the upazila parishad and the school, can usurp traditional modes of behaviour. Solutions to the dilemmas faced in Bangladesh primary schooling are not the prime focus of this work. Rather, it opens the door to the reexamination of the bureaucratic theory of school administration and to the introduction of human values in school organizations.;The research recognizes the importance of studying traditional cultural values. In particular, the influences of the landscape, history, economy, religion and cultural traditions on the conduct of schooling in a developing country have their own distinctiveness. Placing renewed faith in such traditional values might constitute a first step in broadening our understanding of the problems of compulsory mass education in Bangladesh. Restoring the respect and the trust of the Bangladeshi people in their culture is one of many resolutions which Bangladechis must make in order to deliver education to its people as a basic human right.