No hurdles could hold them back

Mukta Das, Bulbul, Ariful Islam, Shaikat Teli
Mukta Das, Bulbul, Ariful Islam, Shaikat Teli

Mukta Das of Sunamganj hardly got to eat two square meals a day. It was the same for Shaikat Teli of Kamalganj in Maulvibazar. Bulbul of Barishal worked in a mobile phone shop and in between work he managed to study and pass his exams. Ariful Islam was a day labourer but he too found time to study. Nothing could hold back these four from their studies and all of them have passed their Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams with flying colours. All four of them secured the top GPA-5 grade.

Mukta Das
Mukta Das

Fisherman’s girl dreams of being a physician
Mukta passed the SSC exam in the science group with a GPA-5 grade from Madhyanagar BP High School and College in Dharampasha upazila of Sunamganj. Her father Manaranjan Das is a fisherman and mother Niyati Rani Das, a housewife. Mukta is the fourth among three brothers and two sisters.

Mother Niyati Rani Das says, “She wants to study and become a doctor. We have had to spend so much on the family. God alone knows how we’ll manage.”

Mukta says her teachers have helped her out with money and other materials she needs for school. She wouldn’t have managed to continue her studies without their help.

Principal of Madhyanagar BP High School and College in Dharampasha, Bijan Kumar Talukdar, says, “Mukta is from a poor family but is very talented. I am certain she will excel in the future with financial help and a proper environment for her studies.”

Bulbul
Bulbul

Good results for Bulbul
Khalilur Rahman (65) and Aleya Begum (48) of the village Baradulali of Gaurnadi, Bathi union in Barishal, have a son and a daughter. They have exhausted all their money of Khalilur Rahman’s medical treatment.

Aleya works as a maid to earn for the family. Bulbul scored GPA-5 in his primary school exams in 2014 and secured a scholarship. But after that he had to begin work in mobile phone shop to help the family survive.

Headmaster of the Government Gaurnadi Pilot Secondary School, Md Waliullah, said, the boy did so well in his exams, they promoted him to class six. They gave him all sorts of assistance from the school funds. After that he secured GPA-5 in his JSC exams too. And now he has scored GPA-5 again in his SSC exam.

Aleya Begum says, “My son works in a shop but studies too. I am so happy with his results, but now we are worried about how to get him admitted to college. How can we afford that?”

Bulbul says, “My teachers and the owner of the shop, Md Manna, have helped me a lot. It is with everybody’s help that I have come so far.”

Ariful Islam
Ariful Islam

Day labourer scores GPA-5
Ariful Islam of the village Nandanpur Jamtala in Nageswai, Kurigram, had to work as a labourer in the fields in order to carry on with his studies. He was a science student of Nandanpur Dimukhi High School.

Ariful’s father Zainul Abedin is a day labourer and mother Asma Begum a housewife. He has a sister and a brother. His sister is married. There are seven of them in the family now, including her grandparents.

Ariful says his teacher has helped him, “I earn for my studies by working in the fields during the holidays. I have even had to go to school on an empty stomach. I want to study and do something with my life. But now I can’t afford to go to the town and get admitted into college.”

His mother Asma Begum says, “We are poor people. Can we afford his studies? He has studied enough. Let him work with his father in the fields now.”

Shaikat Teli
Shaikat Teli

Ward boy’s son wants to be a doctor
Shaikat Teli’s father Sudarshan Teli works as a ward boy at tea garden hospital in Shamshernagar of Kamalganj, Sylhet. His mother Lucky Teli is a housewife. This four-member family lives in a small 10 ft by 8 ft room in the tea garden. Shaikat is the older of two brothers. He recently passed the SSC exam from the science group with a GPA-5 score from Longla High School at the Longla tea gardens in Kulaura.

Shaikat says he father’s monthly salary as a ward boy is only 5100 taka. That is hardly enough to feed the family, let alone educate the two boys. He wants to pass his HSC exam and then go on to become a doctor and treat the poor people in his area, particularly the tea garden workers.

“The boy is very talented,” says Sitaram Been, the Kanihati tea garden ward UP member and editor the magazine Cha Majdoor (The The Worker), “With a little help he will be able to study medicine and fulfil her dreams.”

[Information was sent in by Prothom Alo correspondents from Kurigram. Dharampasha, Sunamganj, Kamalagamj. Maulvibazar, and Gaurnadi, Barisal.]