How did Bangladesh make these strides?
With a combination of public and private intervention. Despite not generally being known for excellence in governance and despite facing many natural disasters, they’ve made a real priority of focusing on education.
The progress was very much aided and abetted by an extraordinary NGO called BRAC, which, in partnership with the Bangladesh government, opened rural schools across the country. Thousands of them. Together, they prioritized education and nondiscrimination against girls.
This partnership between a visionary NGO and a willing government that has allocated substantial resources transformed the national picture. It’s a very good model to emulate.
Are there countries or regions where the situation is particularly bad?
Most regions have very serious issues about access to quality education. Look at the U.S. The evidence about access for poor and minority communities to quality and safe education, including secondary education, is very depressing.
No Child Left Behind has not worked. In fact, it’s failed.
If you look at the literacy and skill levels for the U.S., there are enormous disparities, which parallel income gaps between races and ethnicities.
It’s not wise to generalize too broadly, because of interregional and intercountry variables.
Latin America has many problems, but if you take Brazil, the south of the country does much better than the north. Poor families in the south will choose to send their children in schools, despite the costs to farming or family businesses, because the education delivers valuable skills, whereas in the north, that’s not the case.