Revised: sorry folks I posted this early in the morning in a hurry with half finished sentences. Most of my posts from the field have to be written within a few mins in the AM, as I have full schedule every day.
Yesterday, in a meeting with the teachers and staff of DCPUK, Rangpur, Bangladesh, we started discussing about the daily interactions of the teachers with the students, the parents, and the community members. This is like a storyboard of human emotions that plays out everyday. I will recount some of them.
A small child two and a half years old has been coming and standing on the door when the preschool class is in session. The boy can hardly speak, but struggles and utters the sentence of the Promise, “I will go to school and become highly educated,” and that overwhelms the teacher each time.
Several government school personnel where visiting primary schools in the area; they happened to pass by one of our Learning Centers and stopped to see what was going on. The students were in the process of reciting the Promise. They stood there visibly startled. The teachers told them what they were doing and they left in disbelief.
The Supervisor has a child who goes to a private preschool near her residence. She said that the DoPeace Learning Centers taught far better than what her child is learning at the private school. By the way, the Supervisor’s child will not be eligible as the school is for the poorest of the poor children.
The children are regularly asked by their neighbors, family friends, relatives, and in social events to recite the Promise as a source of continued amusement and awe.
There is a a primary school by an NGO nearby that gives BDT300 per month to each child to attend their school. Many of the children will simply get enrolled there but would come to our Learning Center regularly; they will ask the teacher to excuse them so they go to the other school to collect the money on the designated days. Their parents are keenly aware of the quality of education we provide and rather stick with us.
This is the time the 5th grade students are getting ready for their finals and the national PSC exams. Each DoPeace Learning Center is having a farewell party, and one teacher told us how the students were overwhelmed with emotions and cried as they would be leaving the “madam” and go to another school from now on.
Stories are being created in the slums every day as our teachers touch the hearts and minds of the students and the community.
#EducateChildrenInSlums #EducationInSlums #DoPeace.org
Teachers at DCPUK, Rangpur, Bangladesh
