A school where children dream of building digital Bangladesh
OUR CORRESPONDENT, Patuakhali
The students of the Latachapali Government Primary School in Kuakata study by using digital methods. The students are gradually becoming proficient in the use of Internet technology for recording attendance, classroom learning, and sports. They now dream of building a Digital Bangladesh.
A visit to the Latachapali Government Primary School revealed students standing in a queue, giving their fingerprints to register their attendance using a digital method before entering their classrooms.
Information about absent students is sent to their guardian through mobile phone text messages. Ten CCTV cameras monitor student movements and teaching in the classrooms. Teachers use multimedia projectors while teaching. Classroom teaching is also monitored by the headmaster through a central sound system. Exam results are announced by using Internet technology.
All activities of the Latachapali Government Primary School are being done through technology support for the first time. Modern teaching and 27 innovative learning methods have made the school unique.
Meanwhile, the school has come to be known as the Digital Model School. Students here are excited about playing with educational equipment. The schools environment has been enhanced by its walls which display the many facets of the 1952 language movement, examples of development and details of Bangladesh from the Liberation War to digital Bangladesh. Portraits, biographies, and quotes of famous intellectuals of home and abroad adorn the walls of the school building.
The students devote themselves to using laptops in computer labs. The school has a geography corner, technology corner, library, sports corner, science store, mathematics lab, and a flower, fruit and vegetable garden.
The school library has an entertainment room for the parents. The school has a 100 per cent pass rate and has consistently emerged as the champion in sports and cultural competitions in the upazila, district, and divisional levels. It has also achieved the fourth position in the country in creating digital content. The school has hygienic toilets and safe drinking water for students. Creation of health awareness is part of the schools learning programmes.
Teaching methods often involve playful activities, helping students to increase their vocabulary, computation skills, and pick up rhymes. In addition to the singing of the national anthem, the students also read all religious texts, and take daily oaths to become a healthy person.
After a session of physical exercise, students go back to classes. There are many sports and musical instruments to encourage learning. The schools teachers and the managing committee also have their own fund for giving two new sets of uniforms, including a school bag, every year.
Babu Ananta Makhaji, president of the school managing committee, said that Rakhine Bachin Talukdar established the school in 1936 to educate the backward communities of the coastal areas. After joining, the schools present headmaster has given the institution a different dimension.
Najmus Shakib Khan Khan, the headmaster, said that the school had been upgraded to a model school. Now, the running of the school has become more scientific. Teaching is going on in a fully digital mode, ensuring 100 per cent students attendance. The students drop out rate has now been reduced to zero. The pass rate is 100 per cent.
Hosne Yasmin Karimi, district primary education officer said, the Latachapli Government Primary School is the first digital primary school in the district. The government has plans to upgrade all schools as digital schools in the country.
