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Guru Griho

Nagendra Narayan Pilot Girls High School:
A history

In a country where proper education is scarce, a handful of institutions still strive to enlighten its students with the very best education they can provide. This is the story of one such school.

Zamindar Nagendra Narayan Acharya Chowdhury might have left the country more than 60 years ago, but his palace at Muktagachha reminds the people of his existence. The educational institution established by him still stands tall.

Nagendra Narayan established a primary school in a section of his house in 1907 to educate the females of the zamindars' family. As education was very scarce at that time, when the zamindar established the school it earned a very positive response from the other zamindars of Muktagachha. The school is now named N.N Pilot Girls' High School (Nagendra Narayan Pilot Girls' High School) and it celebrated its centenary programme with much fanfare in 2008.

In the early days of the school, only the girls from the zamindars' family were allowed to study here but by the early 1930's the daughters of the zamindars' high ranking officials were also admitted. Later, the school allowed girls coming from prominent Muslim families of the locality to enroll and thus it became a school for girls of different religions and castes.

In 1940, due to the increase in the number of students, the school was shifted to a library owned by the Atani Zamindars of Muktagachha. The school was then upgraded to provide education till class eight to meet the demand of the students and the primary section of the school was named Nagendra Narayan Poura Primary Girls' School.

The first headmaster of the school was Jagabandhu Raxmit, who later continued his service as the head of the primary section. After the retirement of Jagabandhu, Chhayarani Dey took over as the head of the school. Babu Neelkanta Chakrabarti was the first headmaster of the junior section. After the retirement of Neelkanta Chakrabarti in early 1950s, Minati Dutt took over as its headmistress. She was the daughter of Gupinath Dutt, the very influential headmaster of the local Mrittunjoy School.

Under the leadership of Minati Dutt, the number of students increased exponentially within a few years and the school required more space to accommodate them. Resultantly, the school was shifted to the long since abandoned residence of Nagendra Narayan. Khandaker Abdul Malek Shahidullah, a former MP from Muktagachha also played a vital role in giving the school its present form.

Other notable heads of the school that devoted themselves to bolstering its position as one of the best in Muktagachha are: Shashanka Mohan Dey, Nasima Begum, Md. Aynul Haque, Morium Akhtar Khanam, A.S Mansura Khanam, Khadija Khanam, Razia Khatun, Md. Wazed Ali and Md. Golam Mustafa, the present headmaster of the school.

Now, the school is renowned in Muktagachha for the commendable performance of its students in junior scholarship and SSC examinations. “The average passing rate is over 80 percent”, said Golam Mustafa, headmaster of the school. He also spoke about the prevailing problems of the school.

“The school requires a boundary wall immediately. The 4.25 acres of land on which the school stands is still not registered in the name of the school. Also, many girls come here from great distances, so the school needs a hostel facility urgently,” concluded the headmaster.