The scenes of our older generation writing on palm leaves, reading in the dark by the light of a lamp, are still visible in the ‘Shishu Shiksha Niketan’ of Bagerhat district!
The students of this school learn the alphabet by writing on palm leaves using bamboo pens.
This school named ‘Shishu Shiksha Niketan’ was established in 2005 with the cooperation of the locals in Dumuria Dakshinpara village of Chitalmari in Bagerhat district. It is basically a pre-primary school where a total of 38 children from five surrounding villages study. Senior scholar Kalipad Bachar has been teaching students at the school for about 19 years. 75-year-old teacher Kalipad Bachar believes that writing on palm leaves makes children’s handwriting beautiful and the lines straight. And so he carefully teaches children to write on palm leaves with his own hands. At a monthly salary of 150 taka, students in this school receive alphabets, numbers and moral education. This school runs from 9 am to 1 pm every day. After completing the pre-primary stage, students are admitted to the nearby primary school.