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Spotlight

Mentor of the Mentors..

Dr. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury
Director,BBA Programme
North South University

When it comes to choosing a favorite teacher, it's tough for me to narrow down my choices to one. In my life, there are mainly four persons who have left profound impact on me as teachers.

My teacher Nirmal Kudi was the one who provided me guidelines during my growing stage, back in my high school days, which was in Noakhali District. Although a teacher of mathematics, Nirmal sir didn't only give us profound knowledge on the academic subject but he actually emphasized and inspired his students to step outwards and explore their intrinsic talents through extra-curricular activities. I remember as I first joined the Boy Scout, Junior Credit Core (JCC) and Cubs due to his influence. In no time I became the leader of the scout team, and thus explored my leadership quality. It was all due to Nirmal sir, I am grateful to him for providing me the opportunity and giving me the motivation to develop and facilitate my leadership qualities which contributed and assisted me greatly in the later period of my life in terms of education and career.

Professor Mahbubur Rahman from Noakhali Govt. College is one of my favorite teachers. I particularly remember him because of his unique teaching style. He was literally a “Teacher”, of the epitome kind. I highly admire his way of teaching. Being a physics teacher, Mahbub sir made the lifeless subject - physics seemingly interesting and provided his students with in-depth knowledge about the subject matter.

At University level, Kabir sir provided me with the guidelines to become a teacher. I am extremely grateful to him because he helped me in pursuing my higher studies abroad. Although he was pretty strict when it came to academic affairs, but he would always help us student with various job offers, and co-operate with us in achieving higher goals. Most importantly, he always kept in touch with his students; I remember after going abroad, I almost had no communication with a lot of people, but Kabir sir himself kept contacting me.

I would like to say something about another teacher who is also my uncle; provided me with great support and encouragement all throughout my life. It would not have been possible on my part to become what I am today if it was not for Dr. Meftah Uddin Mahmud and also his wife Dr. Nargis Mahmud. He provided me with lessons of life, gave me the encouragement and inspiration that was needed to develop my potentials. He is the mentor of my life, it's due to his aspirations that I am a teacher today.

Being a teacher myself for last 20 years, I would like to say, teaching is not my job, it's my mission. Teachers play a big role in the life of every individual, every teacher should see that he can establish himself as a role model, the passion should be in the blood, every moment.”

Dr. Mahbubur Rahman
Ex-Chairman: Architecture Department
North South University

“Nurul Islam sir is one of my favorite teachers. He was my teacher in 1972, when I was studying in eighth grade. He still is engaged in teaching profession; he used to teach us Chemistry; at present he is the principal of European Standard School (ESS). However, I didn't find the subject at all interesting, but sir made chemistry an interesting subject! He would teach us as if he were telling a story, maybe that's what made that boring subject enjoyable. What I really liked about him was his honesty. In present days, we seldom admit our ignorance on any subject matter; but Nurul sir would always say “I don't know the answer” whenever he encountered with a question from students, which he wasn't totally sure about. And I picked up this habit from him. He is a very friendly person, although he followed strict code in terms of regularity, punctuality and discipline, but he had always been a warm and cordial person.

I remember my Bengali teacher, who is also a famous poet. There was this unique style of teaching he followed- he never taught us from books! He would select prose and poetry from various books outside the prescribed curriculum and would read them out to us. He used to read us classic Bengali novels, based on indo-cultural prospects, reflecting mainly on complexities of society. He actually made this effort to give us a sense to compare and contrast among various types of literary works. And we could appreciate the good and the bad, through open discussions, opinion sharing- it helped us to express ourselves.

When it comes to my personal experience of teaching for the last 20 years, I would say that a teacher's job is not to teach but actually to inspire the students to learn. It's the job of a teacher to instill the encouragement of learning in a students mind. Teachers should create the ecstasy of learning in every student's life by exchanging ideas and sharing opinions.

I remember this little incident, while giving my first interview for the position of a teacher, I was asked the common question at the interview board “Why do you want to become a teacher?” My dad used to be a teacher, and there was this person at the board who knew my dad, who replied, “Maybe because it runs in his blood.” And I can't agree more with that, it surely does!

(Interviewer: Student of North South University)