::: Star Insight :::

Editor's Note

Importance of Zilla School

One of the under-recognised institutions in Bangladesh are the zilla schools spread throughout the country. In this issue we feature one such school, the Bogra Zilla School. Once these schools formed the backbone of our education system. The most interesting and creditable thing about them was that all of them maintained a very high standard of education. In the early fifties and sixties, standing first in matriculation examinations or getting several places within the first ten were well within the capacity of each of these zilla schools. Most of them always had many students who would secure star marks in national level examinations. Many of these zilla schools had renowned teachers who later became national figures in education.

Sadly, these magnificent national institutions no longer enjoy such stature. Due to neglect, lack of funding, absence of long-term vision and excessive concentration of power and resources in Dhaka city, zilla schools have lost their high quality education. Many of these institutions have lost their highly qualified teachers and have not been able to attract new ones in many instances due to nepotism, corruption and politicisation.

Through focusing on the zilla schools throughout the country, Star Insight will try to bring them into national focus and help restore their standard, quality and prestige.

Mahfuz Anam
Editor-Publisher

Every day we open the newspaper in the morning, listen to news on radio and television, look around us and, we see people desperate to grab lands, wealth and power. One thinks of one's self only, no one else or nothing else but money matters. In a society like this, discovering some one like Bulu Apa helps to bring back our faith in humanity and goodness of man. Our cover story is on Bulu Apa, a talented, educated social worker and a freedom fighter.

What is truly heartening about the stories that we are receiving from our Readers' Club members is that they mostly tell us of struggles and determination, of dreams and endeavours, and above every thing else of successes of people many of us know little of. Knowing their stories would, we believe, help us develop a positive attitude towards life.

In Learner's Club we have discussed some characteristic features of conversation that are often neglected in teaching English in our schools. We know that it is not possible to teach pronunciation or the use of stress and intonation through writing. However, this is an attempt to make the learners conscious of these features of conversation. We have plans to organize workshops on these aspects of English at different Readers' Clubs across the country.
We wish our readers all the best.

Shaheen Kabir
Advisory Editor, Star Insight