NARAYANGONJ, March 29, 2019 (BSS) – ‘Shuva Chandrer School’ in the premises of Chashara railway station is not a formal institution for providing teaching, but showing light to street children in receiving education.
Shuva Chandra Das, a 25 year old tea vendor, established the open air school at a tiny corner of Chashara railway station in 2016 where he himself is also serving as the lone tutor for the last three
years.
Now the school, having no building or infrastructure, is the sweet home for education of local street children.
Shuva was born in abject poverty and lost the scope of formal study after demise of his mother at his tender age when he was studying in Class-V. However, he grasped the lessons of the Class VI, VII and VIII from Taher sir, a teacher of Narayangonj Bar Academy.
“I was deprived of education, so since my boyhood I nourished a dream of establishing a school for those children having no access to education,” he said.
“I could understand very well the needs of education in life to be free from poverty as he brought up in extreme sufferings,” he added. “So, I have opted taking the responsibility of educating underprivileged children,” Shuva continued.
Shuva named his school ‘Lal Sabujer Potaka-Sree Shuva Chandra Prathamik Bidyalaya’ where he gives preprimary education to the children. After completing preprimary education he takes the children to nearby government primary school for admission for their further study.
Now Shuva is providing education to 63 children in his school, and so far 30 children, mostly wards of adjacent slums, were admitted to primary level from his school.
At the beginning, the school time was from 8 am to 10 am. But now the schooling starts at 4 pm and ends at 6 pm. Classes remain suspended during any inclement weather.
Alam, a tea vendor of Chashara rail station said Shuva started his school in a slum on a khasland beside the rail line. But later it was shifted to an open air area near the platform as railway authorities evicted the slums for construction of double line.
Students of the school are happy as their teacher Shuva loves them very much. Their teacher entertains them with ‘biriyani’ on the holidays, said Sumaiya, Mariya and Hasina, students of the school.
Shuva has a tea stall at Rambabur Pukur Par at Chashara. He earns about taka eight to ten thousand in every month which he spends for running his school.
“Every child has merit, which they cannot flourish in lack of opportunity,” Shuva said adding that I don’t want any children to be deprived of education like me.