Agami for the Future
Bangladeshis living abroad often want to help the development of their native land. In 2003, non-resident Bangladeshis in the San Francisco Bay Area – led by Sabir Majumdar, Babu Rahman and Abu Hassan - founded Agami, a non-profit dedicated to education for underprivileged children in Bangladesh. Since then, Agami has grown to 200 volunteers and, in 2014, it supported twenty-one schools with about 6,000 students. The support included teacher and staff salaries, computer laboratories, school uniforms and video tutorials.
Born in Silicon Valley, Agami is keen to bring innovative education technology to Bangladeshi children. In 2010, it set its sights on the Khan Academy videos. These tutorial videos, created by Salman Khan, are used worldwide by students to learn mathematics and other subjects. Why not bring them to our underprivileged school children? So Agami made a deal with the Khan Academy to translate their video tutorials to Bangla. An expanded agreement signed in April, 2015 also includes translation of the Academy's website. Last year Agami distributed mathematics videos to around 2,000 students from eleven mostly rural schools across the country. The translation of the Khan Academy website to Bangla will complete in 2016.
But Agami does not sit still after video distribution. It actively monitors and supports their use. Director of Programs Dilruba Chowdhury, based in California, spends much time in Dhaka working with the local Agami team to increase its capacity and efficacy. For example, after the videos were distributed, the team visited the schools bi-weekly for monitoring and support. They also surveyed students after the school year and found the videos significantly enhanced their learning and encouraged computer use.
Intrigued, I decided to visit an Agami school, called Program for Sustainable Development Primary School, in Maghbazar, Dhaka.
There I met Shibnath Sarker, headmaster, who related the school's history. It started in 2001 when he and others started going to the slums to teach children. The school was first set up in the house of PSD President Shireen Rahman. Today it has 165 children, mostly from bustees near Maghbazar. Their parents range from domestic workers to rickshaw pullers to day labourers. After graduating students are admitted to nearby high schools. Funding for the school comes from Agami and local parents who sponsor the children. It costs Tk 8,000 to sponsor a child for one year.
Upstairs, classes were proceeding in full swing. When I walked into Class II to take pictures, kids were taken aback but recovered swiftly. After the pictures I asked them several questions from the textbooks which they answered correctly and confidently. The teacher for Class II was running late, so two “senior” girls from Class V had taken over and started the lessons. As sunlight filtered in through the windows, the children's dreams shone in their eyes.
I asked Sarker about memorable moments in his fourteen years with the school. “Most are about the dreams they want to pursue,” he said, “for example, I was struck one day when Mithu Akhter, a student, confided that she wanted to become a doctor so she could care for the headmaster when he grows old.”
Then I went downstairs where the kindergarten children had just finished their classes. They sat on the matted floor in a circle and tiffin (bread and butter) was served. When it was finished, their school shift was over. As they exited the school, a new batch of children entered for the second shift, ready to take on the future.
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