Better classrooms for underprivileged children

Maeesha Tahsin Mitul | Published: October 15, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

In order to create a positive learning environment for the underprivileged students, Junior Chamber International (JCI) Dhaka West, in collaboration with JCI Dhaka Uptown, has recently coated the classrooms of Modhudanga Government Primary School at Dhamrai upazilla of Dhaka district in colorful decorum. This event titled 'Paint a Smile' took place on last Friday, October 9, 2015 and was sponsored by Asian Paints Bangladesh.
Humaira Afreen, the 2015 Local President of JCI Dhaka West, explained the rationale behind this unique initiative: "A 2013 study in the UK found that classroom design can have 25% impact, positive or negative, on a student's learning progress and performance in exams over the course of an academic year. We hope that our small effort to create a bright learning environment will similarly influence the academic progress of the Modhudanga children, who used to study in dingy and gloomy classrooms before our intervention. 'Paint a Smile' is just one of our many efforts under the umbrella of Project Avant-Garde and we have many more plans about the community of Modhudanga."
JCI Dhaka West launched Project Avant-Garde in 2014 for the people of the village named Modhudanga. The members of JCI Dhaka West performed a rigorous needs analysis on different issues of this community through field surveys, focused group discussions, stakeholder interviews and secondary information assessment. On the basis of the needs analysis, they prioritised some of the key issues on which they aimed to work on. They pinpointed the fact that although the underprivileged children of this village get free education, they do not yield the desired outcome of their academic efforts due to lack of adequate facilities and proper learning environment. JCI Dhaka West provided year-long supply of stationaries (notebooks, pens, pencils etc) to all the students of Modhudanga Government Primary School with the support of Onnorokom group with a view to helping the school retain the students coming from extreme impoverished background. JCI Dhaka West also celebrated International Mother Language Day with the students of the school to instill patriotic values in them and at the same time to motivate them to study harder. Thus, they have created a positive and friendlly learning environment for the children.
A delegation comprising of eleven JCI Dhaka West members headed by Imon Rahman, lecturer at BRAC University, went to Modhudanga village on October 9 to execute the event. The teachers and school committee members of the institution welcomed them. A huge number of students and their parents were also present to observe the event. The team held interactive sessions with the parents and teachers of the school regarding the importance of quality education and shared the future plans of JCI Dhaka West supporting the cause. Then they took it to themselves to paint one of the classrooms of the school. Later, paints for rest of the classrooms were handed over to the headmaster of the school. A guardian of a student of the school expressed her gratitude saying, "My daughter now-a-days rarely makes an excuse to miss her classes. She has taken a voluntary interest in attending school every day. Her father and I are optimistic about her success. We are grateful to JCI Dhaka West for their work for us."  A documentary was made in 2014, which shows the past condition of Madhudanga village before JCI Dhaka West contributed and now a new documentary is in process which will show the impact created by JCI Dhaka West after 2014 in the same village.
JCI Bangladesh National Board President M Nazrul Islam inspired the JCI Dhaka West team with his presence. The programme was wrapped up within 2 PM on the same day (Friday).
JCI Dhaka West has launched Project Avant-Garde with a view to creating positive impact in three sectors of the Modhudanga community: Education, health and wellness. It has already worked on ensuring quality education and better learning environment. Next year, it wishes to start working on health related concerns of the Madhudanga community.
The writer is a fourth year student of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), maeesha_mitul@live.com