Feature

Amena Baki Residential Model School
A freedom fighter's laudable initiative to transform rural Bangladesh

Z.A.M. Khairuzzaman

LITTLE has changed in the villages of Bangladesh in the past decades. Education and health care is still limited in their availability. Electricity supply is at best intermittent.

Yet, Bangladesh is in its villages. If Bangladesh as a nation has to progress, there is little doubt that villages of Bangladesh too have to progress.

Transforming Rural Bangladesh is a challenge that should focus the best of Bangladeshi minds it is perhaps the single biggest barrier to making Bangladesh a developed country. Schools play a major role in transforming Rural Bangladesh. Although schools have been built in rural areas, but many still lack teachers and appropriate teaching methods.

A freedom fighter with a vision to educate rural Bangladesh has come forward to bridge the gap. Prof Dr M Amjad Hossain, also a prominent orthopaedic surgeon, established the lone residential school in Dinajpur district. Naming after his parents, Prof Amjad founded Amena Baki Residential Model School at Chirir Bandar in the northern district back in 2000. Mother Alhaj Amena Khatun laid its foundation stone while former chief justice of Bangladesh Supreme Court ATM Afzal Hossain formally inaugurated. At that time, the noble man had left the city life to start the rural school for educating kids from villages around. Uncle Md Nurul Islam Mondol, also a freedom fighter, and younger brother Mozammel Hossain Mukul came to his aid. In course of time all of his family members got involved.

It is a fact that the veteran freedom fighter and celebrated orthopaedic surgeon of international repute was born at Chirir Bandar. Yet the actual village situated 10 miles off the district town of Dinajpur has had no improvement except the wonderful and serene school. This school now produces top rankers in country. This year the school secured third position in merit list of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination under Dinajpur education board. The school today has many facilities that were not heard in rural Bangladesh many years ago. Being run by A B Foundation, the school is trying to improve the roots of Bangladesh.

This school has no government grant and no expensive fees. It is yet to be included in the list of M. P. O. Still it provides standard education to students. It is one of the 15 T.Q.I model schools across the country. The school has a computer lab with several decent pentium class computers. 'Technology will play a vital role in transforming Rural Bangladesh,' said Prof Amjad, chief consultant of Lab Aid and former head of the Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). 'This is why my school mobilises science and modern technology to advance sustainable development.' 'The kids are just hard working. Many of them come from a very poor background and shine today just because they can. All they need is an opportunity', he added. Established on five acres of land in a serene atmosphere, the school has a mini children's park. The school stresses cross-disciplinary approaches to complex problems. It places special emphasis on the needs of poor students.

Started with only 134 students at the very inception of the school, its roll strength is now 1,150, both girls and boys, three hundred fifty of them resident students. Learners receive high standard of education because of sincere efforts of founder principal Mizanur Rahman and A B Foundation education adviser Alhaj Md Abdus Sattar. Because of devotion of 42 dedicated teachers, 39 students got GPA 5 and seven others got GPA 4.39 in this year's SSC examination. The percentage of pass is hundred per cent. Last year, the school got 12 talent pool scholarships in primary scholarship examination and 10 scholarships in junior scholarship examination. Since 2002 till date, performance of the students is highly commendable.

The school provides facilities for study upto class ten. The school has a modern academic building, science laboratory, library and auditorium. Resident students have separate dormitories for boys and girls with dining and prayer room facilities. A large playground on the campus is another attraction of the school. All necessary implements of games and sports are supplied to the students as regular exercise is mandatory to them.

Surrounded by flower and fruit gardens, the school provides improved health care services to students. Milk and fish are supplied to students from the school farms. Students participate regularly in extra-curriculum activities. Apart from academics the school encourages students to take part in a range of diverse activities such as music, theatre, dance, nature club, environmental protection, publishing in-house magazines, organizing debates and lectures and participating in inter and intra school competitions. Such activities improve creativity, enhance confidence levels, inculcate discipline, enhance leadership qualities and abilities and stimulate the student to become a team player. Still the school needs help in so many forms. Government and donor agencies as well as philanthropists should come forward with generous financial aid for improvement of the rural school. Hats off to freedom fighter Amjad for his hard efforts to bring up the kids in the village (the future of Bangladesh), trying to bridge the ever growing gap between the rich and poor.

(Writer is a working journalist)
e-mail: khairz@yahoo.com