BES-LOGO

HISTORY OF BANGLADESH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

 

1. Date of Establishment & Founder Members: 

Bangladesh Elementary School (BES) was established on 1st of August in 1995. Nadera Banu Begum and her daughter, Farah Ahmed are the founder of the school which was previously Living Dolls School, owned by Mrs Selina Murad. With the change of ownership, Bangladesh Elementary School was established.  Farah Ahmed was a teacher of Living Dolls School for six years and Nadera Banu Begum was an English teacher of Bangladesh Mahila Samity Girls’ High School for twenty-eight years.

2. Aims & Goals:  After Independence of Bangladesh, Bengali became compulsory medium of education for all the educational institutions, right from primary to masters level as we had fought a war partly for our language.  The upper class could send their children to private English schools and universities but the middle section of people could not avail these opportunities as they were expensive.  Thus they suffered due to poor knowledge in English language and were being deprived of all opportunities in the job sector in spite of being highly educated. 

3. In erstwhile East Pakistan Bengali Medium was compulsory except for few convents and private schools, but Intermediate onwards, right up to Masters English Medium was compulsory.  So, the students and people were equally good in Bengali and English.  In fact, at the end of the year in Intermediate the Bengali Medium students were doing better results than the English Medium students. So, after 10 years of Bengali and 6 years of English people were equally good in both the languages. Keeping in view the difficulties faced by the middle and lower middle section of people, the aim and goal of the school was to upgrade their children in English so they are not deprived of better prospects nationally or internationally as English is recognised as an international language. But as the fund of the school was so meagre, we could not implement the aim and goal effectively and also ‘O’ Level fees was very expensive. The Education Sector of the Government was approached for permission to start National curriculum in English, but there was a negative answer as it was not in the policy.

4. History of the Institution: The school began its journey in August, 1995 with only thirty-five students with Tk 600/- fees for each student and no fund at all.  School had to pay the rent of the premises, salary of ten teachers and other expenses.  Both the partners had to do coaching to support the school to some extent. Somehow, the income and expenditure were break even. Gradually, with undaunted support of the teachers; the students were groomed up to face ‘O’ Level Exams.  That was the turning point for the school as the results were excellent of all nine students.  The school started getting more students and it shifted to a bigger premises. In the mean time in 1998, Government announced that established Bengali Medium Schools could start National Curriculum in English in rented premises.  Gradually we shifted over to NC in English and after five batches of ‘O’ Level the school was converted completely to National Curriculum in English.  The school has come out with five batches of English National Curriculum and by the grace of the Almighty; there are sixteen hundred students after a rugged journey of 16 years.

Farah Ahmed’s family had to shift to Dhaka for the betterment of their children’s studies after two years of the school’s establishment but, by the grace of the Almighty, the commitment and support of the sincere and dedicated teachers the school could up to this stage after eighteen years. We have come out from 18 to 30 candidates in these five batches of SSC. Globally English has become an essential language for not only Bangladesh but for every country in the world.  World has become so small in this jet set age that we need a common language to bring the people of the world nearer.  Bangladesh is way behind than many other countries due to lack of English.  Certainly Bengali is our language and we jealously guard it but for the progress of our country we have to widen out horizon. Quotation of the school:      

“Bengali language is our existence,

English language is our survival”

Students have to follow four rules - (to make a constructive future for the practical world which they are going to face alone without the support of anyone)

  1. Time Management
  2. Discipline and Behaviour
  3. Commitment
  4. Education

If the students follow these four rules, nobody can stop them from reaching their goal.

The school believes in taking weak students and upgrading them to A grade.  Every child of average intelligence is an achiever and they have the right to every opportunity available within their jurisdiction.  Every child is like gold, they only need polishing to shine. 

Bengali is our language and does not have to be thrust down our throat.  Just because a handful of people cannot speak Bengali the whole nation cannot be punished. Every person wants to survive decently and to get good job opportunities but one has to know good English to achieve their goal.  These disjointed competitions, workshops and courses will not teach us English, it has to be inculcated in our education system.  Like before, 10 years one studies in Bengali and higher studies in English for 6 years.

Everyone will be equally good in Bengali and English.  Before Bangladesh, no Bengali went to study abroad because our universities were excellent, Dhaka University was called the Oxford of the East as the standard of education was internationally acclaimed.  People went abroad only to do Doctorate.  Let us all open our eyes and look into the horizon to reach the world with confidence.