Bangladesh is a signatory country of major international declarations of inclusive education
(IE). Over the past two decades, it has enacted policies and legislation in favour of IE.
Contemporary literature suggests that having legitimised guidelines does not always ensure
practices that are aligned with the principles of IE. This paper aims to analyse how the
policies and legislation reflect the notion of IE in the context of Bangladesh. Moreover, to
understand the practice of IE, it also looks at two major projects, Primary Education
Development Program (PEDP) and Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education
Project (TQI-SEP), being implemented in the country over last 7 years. The study was
mainly supported by literature, and policy documents and guidelines. A systematic review
approach was used to understand the notion of IE and its specific implementation pattern.
Results suggest that IE policies in Bangladesh are predominantly borrowed from several
international treaties and they seem to be little understood among practitioners and
classroom teachers within the context of Bangladesh. Further, the result also shows that
teachers’ attitudes towards IE and limited professional development are major barriers to
implementing IE at school level. The findings imply that the policy guidelines in relation to
the context of IE in Bangladesh tend to be low-leverage tools. Further research is needed to
understand IE practice at classroom level.