Celebrating 31 Years of Sunshine Grammar School, Chittagong

"He who opens a school door, closes a prison." – Victor Hugo.

The mottos of Sunshine Grammar School, Chittagong: "God give us light" and "Love – Discipline – Faith" both live up to Victor Hugo's words, but it's what the school has achieved over the past 31 years that actually puts those words into action.

Established on January 14, 1985, Safia Ghazi Rahman embarked on this journey to fulfil her dreams of not only educating the masses in Chittagong, but also to train them in becoming accomplished human beings at her institution. SGS has ever since done exactly that through not only providing quality education in both the National Curriculum under Bangladesh's Education Board, but it has also been the first English medium school to deliver education under the UK based GCE and GCSE systems (under both Edexcel and Cambridge Examination Boards). Its success reflects in the numerous high achievers – not only on the national level, but globally as well.

Besides being a leading institute in education, the Sunshine Group advocates progress in society through regularly organising events in raising awareness within the populace of the city. The students are encouraged to take part in cleaning up the city and hold rallies circumventing issues to be tackled to leave behind a happy and better world.

A complete student is one who not only excels in their academics, but is also one who has bagged many accolades through extracurricular activities. SGS strives in this endeavour to expose its students to not only awareness of social behaviour, but to also encourage them to take part in various sports on the national and regional levels. It was only last year that the institution expanded its horizons through a Memorandum of Understanding with the national sports councils in training its students in sports – such as cricket and football – to be able to play in the national and international levels.

Safia Ghazi Rahman, the pioneer, had a dream of moulding young minds and to give them enough space to grow. Her dream had been translated to reality 31 years ago and has been growing ever since.

Sunshine's work has always been to better the lives of the people in the country. The pioneer had taken up the initiative to provide free treatment to children coming from underprivileged backgrounds. Her institution now funds the Paediatric and Leukaemia Ward for children at the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital. The group has also decided to donate a large sum of money to CMCH to purchase a new blood preserving refrigerator and to donate three rickshaws to three impoverished families so that they are able to make a better living for themselves.

The Sunshine Group wants to see a happy nation through all measures it can take within its capabilities. The celebration of its anniversary is not for its achievements, but for the smiles on the faces of everyone involved.