Teaching from the heart

Minara Begum during one of her tutoring sessions. Photo: Star

When her husband died twelve years ago, it took quite a toll on Minara Begum, now 55, from Kornapur Crossing area of Gazipur's Sreepur upazila. The second wife of Tajuddin Bepari had previously been able to focus on family life, including helping her two sons, who have since completed college, with their schoolwork. Without her husband she felt lost and distressed. She thought of doing something for the community, something within her modest means; but before she could embark on a plan, the community came to her.

“We are poor,” says Ramiza Khatun, grandmother of Sharmin Akhter, a class two student of Kornarpur Government Primary School. “Sharmin's parents are both illiterate. Her father Giashuddin is a rickshaw puller and her mother Kulsum Akhter is a garment factory worker. They can't help Sharmin with her study and on her own, Sharmin can't do her homework well. Minara Begum helps. We are grateful to her.”

Word of Minara's success in teaching her own children, who regularly achieved first to third place in their classes, had spread. In the neighbourhood many parents were struggling to assist their children. Due to their own lack of education, many parents couldn't even answer the simplest schoolwork questions that their children regularly asked. Minara could.

“We can't afford to give Minara any fees,” Ramiza continues, “nor does she demand any.”

For more than a decade, Minara, who is renowned for her care in explaining lessons and homework, has been helping children from struggling families to excel at school.

Sharmin is one of the forty students Minara currently teaches from her home daily, in three sessions arranged for nursery to class two, classes three and four, and class five, staggered through the day.

Dadu, Auntie, Bubu, Boro Maa, Kakima -- Minara's students call her by many affectionate names. All hold this giver of education in special regard.  “Dadu makes me understand my homework,” says Ismail Hossain, a class-five student. “My teachers at school are happy with my performance because of Dadu.”

“Auntie helps me with my schoolwork,” says another student, Sharmin Sultana, the daughter of a rickshaw driver from nearby Pachultia village, whose parents are illiterate. “With her help I can prepare for class.”

Class three students Sakib, Sifat, Akhter Hossain and Salma from Sitpara village are likewise pleased with the help they receive from Minara. “Dadu helps us understand both English and Maths well,” one of them says.

“Spreading education is noble work,” says Minara, who herself never completed secondary schooling. “I do it in that spirit. It brings satisfaction.” She likes best to help students who are by habit inattentive at school. Considering the economic circumstances of her students' families Minara has never thought of charging fees.  “She doesn't demand fees from anyone,” says one parent, rickshaw driver Saiful Islam. “Everyone pays according to their ability and there's never any dispute about it.”

 “Students who study with Minara do well at school,” says acting head teacher of Kornarpur Government Primary School Sabina Yasmin. Her students are poor but the quality of her teaching is not.” “When results are announced at our school,” says assistant teacher at Kornarpur, Shamsun Nahar, “Minara is always there. She has such an interest in knowing the results of her students.”

“If every area had an education enthusiast like Minara,” says Sreepur upazila's primary education officer Kamrul Hasan, “it would not take long for Bangladesh to be free of illiteracy. Her noble efforts are a matter of pride for the nation.”

It's quite a contribution for someone who began with a plan to achieve something modest for her community. Far from being insignificant, good school results are likely, after all, to be the greatest gift that many a parent can wish for.