The headmistress of Parul Government Primary School in Pirgachha upazila has stopped giving stipend money to a very needy schoolgirl after she refused to continue as a domestic help in her house.
Ironically, this very headmistress persuaded the girl’s family to get her admitted to the school promising government stipend, family members say.
Headmistress Kaniz Fatema did keep her promise, but she did so as long as the girl worked as her domestic help.
Shyamoli, the nine-year-old class-I student of Parul village, received only one of the three equal instalments of Tk 400 last year. She also did not get the first instalment this year, which was distributed among the students on Sunday.
The Upazila Primary Education Department told The Daily Star on Sunday that they have been sending the money — Tk 100 per month — for the girl all along since January 2010.
Asked why Shyamoli is not getting the money, Fatema said she is not responsible for the distribution. “The teacher tasked with the job can say this,” she added.
“I act on instructions of the headmistress. I cannot include or exclude anyone on my own,” Lutfor Rahman, the teacher responsible for the job, told The Daily Star last night.
Shyamoli lost her mother when she was nine months old. Immediately afterwards, her father Sayed Ali left for Dhaka. She has been living with her maternal grandparents since.
Despite hardship, they wanted their granddaughter to go to school like other children. So they admitted her in class-I in January last year.
“Shymaoli was elated at this,” said her grandfather Kalu Sheikh, a day-labourer. However, the excitement was over in three months, as poor Kalu Sheikh had to stop sending her to school for want of money.
Around that time one day, the headmistress came to their home.
“She said she would arrange government stipend of Tk 100 per month for Shyamoli if she works in her house,” Kalu told this correspondent.
Fatema assured the family of taking the girl to school every day from her house at Kamalkatchna in Rangpur town.
“We pass our days in tremendous hardship with the little income of my husband for our four-member family. Thinking that the stipend money would bear the cost of Shyamoli’s education, we sent her to the headmistress’ house,” says Halima Khatun, her grandmother.
In four months time, the headmistress stopped taking her to the school. She was instead engaged in full-time household work including looking after the five-year-old boy of the headmistress, washing dishes and cleaning the house, Halima adds.
Shyamoli alleged that Kaniz Fatema sometimes beat her if she, for example, dropped a plate while washing or played with a mobile phone.
On hearing this, Kalu Sheikh asked the headmistress to send Shyamoli to their home — a tiny hut made up of mud, a few pieces of bamboo and paddy sheaf.
The teenage girl was sent home in December last year after the annual examination. She did sit the exams but came out unsuccessful.
In January this year, both her grandparents requested the headmistress to renew her admission in class-I, but the she refused.
Following repeated request, she allowed Shyamoli’s readmission but denied to accept her application for stipend for next fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011), Kalu Sheikh said.
Kaniz Fatema refuted this allegation saying they submitted the application after she had already sent the list, a claim Shyamoli’s family members brushed aside as “false”. She also denied beating the girl.
On Thursday, Kalu Sheikh lodged a complaint with the upazila nirbahi officer and the upazila primary education officer of Pirgachha against the “injustice” towards Shyamoli.
Sayed Iftekhar, the upazila primary education officer, said they will thoroughly look into the case
Courtesy of The Daily Star
