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The girl students of Dudekhawa Government Primary School, located at Dudekhawa village in Kurigram’s Rajarhat upazila which is around 330 kilometres away from Dhaka, talked to other school students through a tab device on Skype.
On the day, the topic was child marriage. Issues of minimum age of marriage for female, problem of child marriage and how to prevent child marriage came up for discussion.
Nusha Islam (pseudonym), a 5th grade student of this school, said that a discussion was held on child marriage. Any marriage under the age of 18 is called child marriage. It can cause many physical difficulties for girls. Now they know that if any child gets married, then they will have to call 109 to prevent it. They also talk about the matter with their family.
Not only the students of this school but also 4th and 5th-grade girl students of other 59 schools take part in such sessions and enhance their knowledge and skills on ICT, become aware of their rights and continue education under an Empowering Girls through Education (EGE) project.
The project has been designed by Save the Children and funded by Hempel Foundation. It is being implemented in cooperation with two national partners--Friendship and CAMPE.
Save the Children’s Manager-Education, Mohammad Nazrul Islam told The Business Post that the EGE project aims to support 12,536 girl children in grades 4 and 5 in 120 government primary schools to transition in secondary schools with better performance in Bangla, English and Mathematics. Now the project is being implemented in Rajarhat upazila of Kurigram and in Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur which started in 2019 and will end in May this year.
Friendship’s project Coordinator Md Suruz Mollah said, “We have a session called “Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MPHS)” in every school as part of the EGE project. This session aims to mainly make the girls aware of their protection and rights.”
Besides, EGE has sensitisation activities for the parents and the community about child marriage, girl education, and so on, he added.
This correspondent visited some government primary schools of Kurigram’s Rajarhat upazila in recent times and talked to students, guardians and teachers.
While visiting Nazim Khan Government Primary School, it was seen that Friendship education facilitator Roksana Parvin took a session ‘MPHS’ for 5th-grade girl students.
She said, “Today’s session is called ‘My Boundaries’. This session is mainly for educating children about body parts. Besides, children are taught about their body boundaries. A stranger can harm them through the temptation to give them something like chocolate. So, we teach them how they deal with unknown people and how they save them while trying to do something.”
“We have this session once every month. We conduct the session during school hours by discussing the issue with the teachers. Children’s awareness is increased by discussing various subjects in different months,” she said.
Sumaiya Akhtar ((pseudonym), 5th-grade student of that school said, “Today we learned about my body boundaries as well as good and bad touch. If anyone touches me on my body, I will move from there. Then I will scream. Even I will tell my parents and teachers.”
School’s headmaster Md Ataur Rahman said, “Along with the normal education programme, we are continuing with such education programme in our school through the Friendship project since 2019. I think it is a unique project. Our students are benefiting a lot from this and getting sustainable learning. Students are exposed to technology. It will serve them well in future.”
The students’ guardians had meetings in Rajarhat Model Government Primary School. There are discussions with them about children’s education, child marriage and their rights.
Among the guardians, Asma Khatun ((pseudonym) told The Business Post, “I did not go to school because I was poor. But I want my child to be educated. Now my daughter is delighted to go to school. She is learning different things besides study.”
Because of poverty, many child marriages take place here. But now it has reduced a lot. “We have learned to understand the need for education. Besides, we now know about the problems of early marriage,” she said.
The school’s headteacher Nur Islam said that through this project of Save the Children, interest of children in studying through tabs and technology is increasing. They had no idea about such a programme. Now they understand the needs for such projects.
“We heard that this project tenure will end in May this year. So, we want that this project should be extended with inclusion of boys and girls in all schools of this upazila,” he said.
Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Upazilla Education Officer, told The Business Post that teachers try to explain child marriage in student and parent assemblies. Complementarily Friendship NGO works here with them. They also talk about the bad sides of child marriage.
This official said that there are 124 primary schools in Rajarhat upazila and more than 18,500 students are studying here. Among them, EGE project is running in 60 schools in this upazila. It would be better if the project tenure is extended.
Nura Tasnim, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Rajarhat upazila, told The Business Post that comparing the schools under this project with other schools, it is seen that they are comparatively clear in concept.
This project is talking or working on children’s bad or good touch, child marriage, she said, adding that generally such discussions do not take place at primary level. The good news is that this discussion has started.
The UNO said that various committees including the Child Protection Committee and NGOs are working on child marriage. All stakeholders are taking part in discussions. They are being made aware. They are working to prevent child marriage.
