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Tarabunia

Originally, the demand of the villagers

         In 2007, Ajha was solicited by the inhabitants of a poor and isolated village of Kagrachari district to open a middle school. In Tarabunia, children can go to public primary school (classes 1 to 5) but to continue in secondary school, they have to walk 15 km on dirt roads (impossible during the monsoon season) or leave their family for boarding. In other words, schooling stops for the majority of children, especially girls. A school committee is created and Borgang Foundation, a local association committed to education, becomes the partner of Ajha to carry out this large-scale project since it is to finance it in its entirety. The construction of a brick building consisting of 4 rooms, training, recruitment and remuneration of all staff (priority to young graduates from the village) as well as educational and administrative expenses represent a budget of 61 000 € over 4 years.

        Thanks to grants from the Pays de la Loire Regional Council, private sponsorship and occasional actions (sales, collections), the TJHS school (Tarabunia Junior High School) opened in 2011 in temporary premises with 12 students enrolled in class 6 under the conduct of 2 teachers.

The official inauguration took place in 2012 in the presence of a large Ajha delegation from France and warmly welcomed by the villagers of Tarabunia.

A stable and dynamic middle school

Class 7 opened in 2012 and Class 8 in 2013, with the first class having successfully passed the end-of-cycle exam. The numbers have steadily increased: 55 students (including 24 girls) in 2014, 81 in 2015, 103 in 2016 and 127 in 2018 (including 58 girls).
        Students follow the curriculum and the National Education Program of Bangladesh. In CHTs, children speak their mother tongue, Chakma, but instruction is in Bengali, the national language. They take courses in Mathematics, Science, English, Bengali, Social Sciences, Religion, Sports, Drawing and Sculpture, Computer Science, Agriculture (Boys), Domestic Economy (Girls).
        Classes are held from Saturday to Thursday from 9:30 to 16:30 with a lunch break (not served at school) from 13:00 to 13:30. The day is broken down into 8 courses of 40 minutes. Classes stop at 12:10 on Thursday and Friday is rest day (Muslim country).
      

        The staff consists of the highly invested principal, Nilotpal Chakma, 3 full-time teaching staff and 2 part-time teachers, 1 administrative staff and 1 peon ("handyman"). The majority of them are from Tarabunia. A 3-year work contract is signed between Ajha and the regular professors, thus ensuring stability in the functioning of the school.
        The team and the School Committee are running the middle school dynamically, supported administratively and pedagogically by Moanoghar who replaced Borgang Foundation in 2013.
Together, they are committed to advancing the middle school by any means possible:
       - volunteer tutoring classes by teachers (paid private lessons are commonplace in all schools, even public ones, in Bangladesh)
           - success of students during exams: 100% promoted to JSC (end of class 8) in 2017
           - participation of students in contests for scholarships
         - since 2012, textbooks have been made available by the National Education Authority of Bangladesh and a library has been set up through local private donations
        - in 2015, obtaining local subsidies to build sanitary facilities, collective washbasins and hygiene promotion campaign
         - in 2016 obtaining a grant from Khagrachari district council to build a road (instead of the dirt road) and especially a second school building (under construction) and cope with the increase in the number of students
        - opening in January 2018 of class 9 and recruitment of 3 paid teachers by parents and villagers

Long term

TJHS is a private school but the aim is to have it recognized by the Bangladesh National Education System so that teachers' salaries are borne by the state. To do this, it must meet several criteria (enrollment, teachers' diplomas, success in exams, ratio of male to female employees, etc.) and take steps, such as registering the school. The process has been going on since the school opened, but in Bangladesh everything takes time and rule changes are frequent.
Ultimately, Ajha will withdraw from TJHS, which has become an autonomous school and a unifying project carried out by the village community for the benefit of its children.

Tarabunia 2020

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