The sweet and sticky fragrance of the flower necklaces hanging around our necks was as overpowering as the tropical summer heat inside the tin and concrete schoolhouse. They were given as a sign of honor for us as guests who had come to visit two primary schools in a rural village area.
Because children in Bangladesh often miss the first three years of primary school, often because they have to help work to provide for their families, they get behind and can never enter the government education system. Delta’s 30 primary schools gave 900 students the opportunity to receive an education this year in villages like this one. Students learn in Bangla and English and after three years in the village school, they can attend the state schools to continue their education.
We saw students taking great pride in their schoolrooms, decorating the walls with bright designs and showing off what they have been learning three hours a day six days a week. At one school we visited we noticed more proud faces. Many women pressed together to peer in the windows as children recited their alphabet and sang for us. I asked the teacher if these were the parents of students. It was then that I learned about the relational approach the Delta teams take, surveying an area to understand the needs of the community and then select and train teachers. Once school has started the teachers have monthly meetings with each student’s family, building relationships where whole communities can be impacted.
One teacher told me, “The families are very happy and very involved.” She is seeing the community impact when “some children are taking what they learn at school and teaching their parents and brothers and sisters at home who haven’t had a chance to go to school.” Education isn’t just breaking the cycle of poverty one student at a time. It is changing the face of villages.
Education is Changing the Face of Villages
The sweet and sticky fragrance of the flower necklaces hanging around our necks was as overpowering as the tropical summer heat inside the tin and concrete schoolhouse. They were given as a sign of honor for us as guests who had come to visit two primary schools in a rural village area.
Because children in Bangladesh often miss the first three years of primary school, often because they have to help work to provide for their families, they get behind and can never enter the government education system. Delta’s 30 primary schools gave 900 students the opportunity to receive an education this year in villages like this one. Students learn in Bangla and English and after three years in the village school, they can attend the state schools to continue their education.
We saw students taking great pride in their schoolrooms, decorating the walls with bright designs and showing off what they have been learning three hours a day six days a week. At one school we visited we noticed more proud faces. Many women pressed together to peer in the windows as children recited their alphabet and sang for us. I asked the teacher if these were the parents of students. It was then that I learned about the relational approach the Delta teams take, surveying an area to understand the needs of the community and then select and train teachers. Once school has started the teachers have monthly meetings with each student’s family, building relationships where whole communities can be impacted.
One teacher told me, “The families are very happy and very involved.” She is seeing the community impact when “some children are taking what they learn at school and teaching their parents and brothers and sisters at home who haven’t had a chance to go to school.” Education isn’t just breaking the cycle of poverty one student at a time. It is changing the face of villages.