A teacher’s initiative to enlighten char children

Imparting Education Under Open Sky In Munshiganj
Mozammel Hossain Sajal: Sarishaban Shamsul Haque Sarker Memorial Elementary School is imparting education under open sky in the char area of Padma River in Dighirpar union under Tongibari upazila of the district.

More than 250 students of the Kandharabari, Sarishaban and Dhanakomra village situated in the char of the river are receiving education at pre-primary and primary level, though the school has no classroom or any kind of house. Students are being taught under the open sky on the ground.

Assistant teacher of Mahakali Dhalibari Government Primary School Tamanna Sarker Moni took the initiative to establish the school after the name of her father Shamsul Huq for the underprivileged population.

Tamanna Sarkar Moni informed that the school started its journey formally with pre-primary students and also first-graders at the yard of Seku Sikder’s house at Sharishaban village on September 20 last year.

Her efforts included going door to door to persuade people to educate their children, and trying her level best to obtain the Education Ministry’s permission to run the school. The permission has not yet been granted, locals said.

She also approached the well-off in the area, and asked for assistance to develop the school.
And her endeavours eventually paid off as Dighirpar union parishad Chairman Arif Halder donated 28 decimals of land this year to build a school building, locals added.

Besides, Moni herself also donated 7 decimals of land for the school’s development.

Sources said, the 1988 erosion caused three villages in the union – Sharishaban, Dhanakomra and Kandharabari – to disappear from the map, but people later returned to live in the char rising from the river.

There was only one problem: No public or private school had been founded to educate the local children all these years. Finally, schooling started here under the initiative of Tamanna Sarkar Moni.

While talking to The Daily Observer, Seku Sikder said he did not want to see his own children remain illiterate. “That is why I agreed to let Moni run the school in my yard”, he added.

At present, three part-time teachers work at the school, and they are paid a paltry sum every month “The joint efforts of the village people will achieve success and we will be able to reach at the focal point”, he hoped.

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