Towards a National Policy on Open Educational Resources in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is an E9 country with a huge population and a corresponding demand for quality education. Its challenges are common to those of other developing nations. Whilst the government provides free textbooks at the primary and secondary level, access to higher education is limited. This report has been prepared to support the adoption of a national open educational resources (OER) policy in Bangladesh. OER are teaching, learning and research materials that are either available in the public domain or released with an open licence that allows reuse, revision, remixing and redistribution without the permission of the copyright holder. The use and integration of OER in teaching and learning not only saves money for learners, but also empowers teachers to create learning resources that are suitable for their learners in specific contexts by reusing already available materials. Hence, OER adoption offers huge possibilities for transforming teaching and learning environments. This study reviews the existing policies in Bangladesh and analyses the present situation with regard to access to and use of educational resources by learners, to justify the need for a national OER policy. The report highlights that whilst there have been various efforts to create educational materials for free distribution, and several initiatives to produce digital content at the K-12 level, there is not much happening in terms of providing access to educational content at the higher education level.