The government also has been attaching priority to the spread of education among females. As a result, girls up to 12 grade are allowed free of cost study in colleges. Similarly, some philanthropists have volunteered their land and money to build schools and colleges in towns and villages.

Mohammad Fazlul Haque, who dedicated himself to teaching profession for two decades at Mymensingh Agriculture University and at the Philippine University, is one of such philanthropists to help establish a college exclusively for girls at Bagoan village under Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia district. Bagoan village was hitherto unknown until Dr. Fazlul Haque Girls' College was established there in 1997. Mohammad Fazlul Haque had a dream from his boyhood to spread education among female community in his village, which had been deprived of such facilities.

But his dream could not perhaps have been translated into action had he remained just an educationist after obtaining graduation in Economics from Dhaka University in 1960 and PhD from Texas A+M University. From mid 1980's he began his pursuit as a business personality by establishing garment industries. Now he is one of the pioneers in the production of RMG in Bangladesh. Prior to becoming an industrialist Dr Fazlul Haque had the privilege to serve as economic consultant at Kor Porasi Pembangounan Desa in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia from 1978 to 1984.

It has been possible for him to establish the girls' college at Bagoan on nine bighas of land not only as an educationist but perhaps more as an industrialist. Apart from donating nine bighas at the beginning, he gave away another five bighas of land for expansion of the college. Construction of the buildings were completed at a cost of one crore fifty lakh taka. The entire amount was given by him which shows his urge for and magnanimity towards education of girls. This is the manifestation of the educated bent of his mind. He has also distinguished himself as a writer with two books to his credit, one on his stay abroad and another a historical episode of Nawab Serajuddowla.

Situated far from madding crowd of the town Dr Fazlul Haque Girls' College is one of the three colleges in the whole upazila with a population of 4,34,635 of which 2,11,613 are female. Judged from the situation where womenfolks are deprived of education Dr Fazlul Haque Girls' College has made its mark which has been reflected in the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate examination of last consecutive two years. From this year students of this college have started appearing in the degree examination too. Presently there are about 6,500 students, which shows a trend of increasing year by year. Seventy per cent of the teachers of this college are woman. Only 30 per cent of the teachers represent male community. A good number of teachers have been offering really sincere and dedicated services to earn reputation for the college.

Being an educationist turned industrialist Dr Mohammad Fazlul Haque himself spends his valuable time to visit and monitor the activities of the college. In the campus he holds meeting with teachers and staff members to enquire about the on going activities and also the problems confronted by teachers and students and recommends solution on the spot.

This is possibly one of the very few girls' colleges in such remote rural area where dormitories are set up to accommodate pupils from outside the village. With the financial assistance from the founder-president of the college, Dr Fazlul Haque two hostels with 100 beds each were founded, named after his wife Dr Nazma Yasmin Haque, who also holds a PhD degree from the Philippine University.

The college has all three faculties of Humanities, Science and Commerce. The founder has introduced award system to encourage teaching profession, which appears to be a new phenomenon in the context of Bangladesh's educational environment. Awards amount to 50,000 taka annually. The library of the college is quite rich with nearly 6,000 books, and also various journals, magazines and newspapers. In comparison with other colleges in villages laboratory for the science faculty in this college is impressive indeed.

In most of the privately owned colleges there has been a tendency to appoint lecturers on donation basis. A lecturer as probationer is required to pay donation to the tune of, say, eighty thousand to one lakh taka and for the post of Principal one lakh to two lakh taka to the management of the college. In that case, merit and capability supposedly do not count much in the selection process. But the management of Dr Fazlul Haque Girls' College is an exception in this respect. The selection of teachers is made on the basis of academic qualification and through interviews by a selection committee comprising representative from National University, principal of a government college and professors of respective subjects selected by National University and president of the governing council of the college. There is hardly any scope for 'donation'.

In the villages girls are lagging behind in education because their parents lack in money. Many girls are married off at teenage. It is difficult to pick up good girl students. Teachers also get frustrated when a good student leaves the college before completion of education. Either the girl student joins primary school as teacher or is given in marriage. Sixty per cent of the rural population is landless and remains unemployed for nearly half of the year. They could hardly think to keep their children at schools or colleges for a reasonable period. This being the economic scenario Dr Fazlul Haque Girls' College offers scholarships according to merit for students of BA, BSc, and BCom classes. I would like to conclude by quoting the founder "Our vision is to fulfil the goals of academic achievement, social responsibility and personal growth of the girl students." Fair and god enough. But we have such personalities elsewhere of the country, too. And this act of philanthropy needs to be emulated there, too. After all, as said, education is the backbone of a nation!

Mohammad Amjad Hossain is a former diplomat.