Mala's higher education looks bleak

Meritorious Mala Jhora still does not know whether she will be able to manage finance for her admission into a public university as her tea worker parents do not have the ability to support her education expenditure.

Mala, daughter of tea workers Rajkumar Jhora and Kalpona Jhora of Amu Tea Garden in Habiganj's Chunarughat upazila, is passing anxious moments as her admission to either Dhaka University (DU) or Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) faces great uncertainty due to acute financial crisis.

Elder among two siblings, the 18-year-old girl got chance at both the public universities and obtained good positions in the merit lists as well.

She obtained GPA-5 in the SSC examinations from Amuroad High School and College in 2016 and secured GPA-4.92 in the HSC examinations from Chunarughat Government College this year.

“Although I got chance at both DU and SUST, I am still in doubt of fulfilling my dream of studying at the prestigious institutions due to my parents' acute hardship,” Mala said.

“As I don't have any ability to bear my daughter's education expenditure, I told her to enrol herself at a local institution where the cost would be much less,” Rajkumar said, adding that he and his wife each get Tk 102 as daily wage, which is not sufficient to maintain their four member family.  

“We neither have any land nor any domestic animals to sell. Sometimes we pass our days half starved but my children always concentrate on their studies,” Mala's mother Kalpona Jhora said.

University Tea Students Association (UTSA) President Raju Kurmi said, “Mala was always sincere in her study. Bright future awaits her if she gets support for continuing higher study.”