Centenary celebrations at Dinabandhu Middle School on Friday morning. Picture by Alok Santoshi

Bengali school celebrates 100 yrs

Deoghar, Oct. 9: A sense of nostalgia hung heavy in the air as a section of the Bengali population of Deoghar congregated today to be part of the inauguration of the three-day centenary celebrations of Dinabandhu Middle School on Station Road.

Several former students and a former headmaster, Satyendra Nath Nandan, who came down all the way from Calcutta to attend the event, could hardly hold back their tears. “It’s a matter of great pride that a Bengali medium school is celebrating its 100th year outside Bengal,” Nandan said.

Ashok Kumar Choudhury, a retired civil surgeon and president of the managing committee of the school, said that the school came into being with just 20 boys and two teachers in 1909. “Classes were held at the portico of the local R Mitra High School. A year later, a landlord, Dinabandhu Nandi, provided a plot on Station Road for a permanent set-up.”

Now, the middle section of the school has 531 students and seven teachers on government pay roll. Besides, three others teachers have been appointed on a casual basis.

But the high school, which started in 1985 and has 350 students and six teachers, is yet to get recognition from the state as far as paying salaries to the teachers is concerned. The school was given permission to conduct matriculation examination in 2005.

Birendar Kumar Mandal, the headmaster of the middle section, rued that they had not been getting their salaries since April 09. “Being a linguistic minority school, we often have to face the apathy of the government, which dampens our spirits. Only recently, we got Bengali version of the prescribed textbooks. Besides, state grants have been held up too, dealing a blow to development,” he said.

N.C. Gandhi, a member of the managing committee, however, said that despite all odds, the school has completed 100 years and has been able to provide basic education to many students in their mother tongue. “We also offer many extracurricular activities such as music, dance, art and crafts and sports,” he added.

The celebrations will come to an end on Sunday with a cultural extravaganza and sports meet. Yamuna Giri, the regional deputy director of education, Santhal Parganas, will be the chief guest on the occasion.