Back to School

Back to School Project Bangladesh has a very good network of primary and intermediate secondary schools, and higher secondary colleges. Families can get education for their kids at a very low or no cost. Yet there are families who don’t see the opportunities education brings. They focus on the short term gains and choose to let children work in the household or farming. Even though this means they drop out of school. That is why The Choice founded the Back to School Project together with a manufacturer in 2007.

Change the future

The manufacturer, who owns a local factory, recognized extreme poverty in Gonopaddi. This village is located in Sherpur, an agrobased and underdeveloped district 198 kilometers from Dhaka at the norther border with India. Most of the kids in this region are drop-out students and families do not have enough to eat. The lack of education leads to this poverty, because eventually uneducated children become a liability for themselves and their village. They are not able to support themselves in the long run. Help was needed in order to change the social and economic condition.

Stimulating children’s potential

The Back to School Project noticed these problems and created a program focused on drop-out students. The philosophy of the program is to transform each child into its own change agent. It’s not limited to learning; it’s also focused on stimulating one’s potential. Good practices, helping others, and living a healthy life, are all part of the project. The goal is to teach children self-worth as well as value of education so they can influence the economic scenario and engage in societal welfare. The Back to School Project has kickstarted a huge development; some of the grade 1 students who started with the program ten years ago are now attending university. These original school drop-outs strive to become a doctor, engineer, minister or parliamentarian instead of working in the household or farming.

Success of the project

The first year of the Back to School Project started with twenty students. Initially, there were only two teachers. The students were split up into grade 1 and grade 2 classes. Since there were only a few students per class to manage, the lectures were very effective. Unlike regular schools there were incentives for attendance: free eggs and biscuits, free soap and toothpaste to stimulate health and hygiene, and extra and co-curricular activities to develop other social and cultural skills. The first results were tremendous. More and more students were eager to join the school in the years that followed. Today, there are more than two hundred students, twenty teachers, and computer training programs for the basic courses. The scope of the school has expanded to grade 12. Students up to grade 4 are scattered across ten satellite places in the village getting lessons from higher grade students. Students from grade 5 attend the main school building to follow lectures, given by regular teachers.

Make your own change

Together with the manufacturer

The Choice helps these children to make their own change. Nowadays there are no real school drop-outs in Gonopaddi. All children have been included in the Back to School Project. They have become their own change agents with the ability to transform the Sherpur-district for a better future.

The Back to School English Club

In the poverty-stricken village Gonopoddi most students learn English by memorizing exercises from their textbooks. After twelve years of studying, most of them still aren’t able to understand and read English. The Back to School English Club was initiated to help these students – ranging from grade six to grade eleven – to develop the English language.

The thirty participating students are divided into groups of six members. Each group is assigned a leader from within the group, who helps others while learning themselves. These group leaders report to club manager Mr. Babul who reaches out to coordinator Zaafir Hasan when necessary.

Goals of the initiative

• Improve students’ understanding and communicative skills in English.

• Enhance and improve their ability to network.

• Develop leadership qualities among students.

• A dvance students in the field of technology.

Two months after starting the club students have let go of their fears and are fully committed to learn English, driven by their enthusiasm to overcome illiteracy.