Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Fellowship, in June 2014 student Kendra Layton interviewed Shiuly Khatun, an education supervisor of Caritas Bangladesh’s Aloghar (Lighthouse) Project. Beginning in November 2011, Aloghar is part of the Supporting the Hardest to Reach through Basic Education initiative and includes 1,005 education centers in six regions of Bangladesh. Aloghar aims to increase the literacy, empowerment, and integration of the hardest-to-reach Bangladeshi children. In this interview, Shiuly Khatun reflects on incorporating life skill education with parents of indigenous students and her aspirations for students and the project in the future.

How long have you been working with Caritas and what are your main responsibilities as education supervisor?

I have been in this position for two and a half years. I oversee 14 schools in two upazilas: Niamatpur and Nachale. The farthest school is 30 kilometers from my house. My principle duties are supervising teachers and collaborating with the Education Management Committee. I also work to ensure student attendance and facilitate life skill education for the parents. Finally, I organize community events like sports and national days.

What is your favorite part of your job?

I like to build relationships among students and teachers. I also love teaching the children.

What does life skill education for parents include?

We teach them about health and sanitation. We also work on the area of climate change, which is a very important subject in Bangladesh today. We create awareness about childhood marriage and the importance of education. Finally, we work on drug prevention and share the negative effects drugs can have.

Can you tell me more about the population you work with?

We have two adivasi, indigenous communities here called Urao and Santal. Caritas has developed multi-language education materials in their languages. The teachers are recruited from these communities. I myself am trying to learn Santali.

Do you provide teacher trainings as part of your job?

Yes, we give foundation trainings, teaching learning methods, as well as early childhood education. We also give subject-based training on the national curriculum.

Are you required to submit some type of documentation to the government?

Every month we submit a progress report to the upazila’s education office, and every year we submit a report at both the district and upazila level.

What was your background with Caritas before coming to this project?

I also worked as a unit officer for the Gender Development Project and in Improvement of Livelihood through Sustainable Agriculture.

What are your hopes for the students after they complete class five in Aloghar schools?

In all 14 schools I oversee, there are 105 students in class five. It is my hope they will go on to secondary school and be mainstreamed into government formal schools.

What else would you like to add?

We should include extra training in our project activities. This would allow us to learn and then better benefit our students, especially in the area of information communications technology. Also, there is some involvement of parents, but we need to learn to have increased involvement. Most of the parents are day laborers. Two or three own grocery stores and small businesses.

And what do you do when students do not come to class?

We make home visits, and we tell their parents about the importance of education.