CGS’s Community School  

Chittagong Grammar School (CGS) provides a holistic education to under privileged children on school premises during off peak hours. Founders, Shereen Mahmood-Ispahani and Farhat Khan, explain how running a community school from their own school campus has enabled them to create a sustainable service project whilst utilising the expertise of staff and the volunteering passion of students.

Author and position: Shereen Mahmood-Ispahani and Farhat Khan, joint Founders 

School: Chittagong Grammar School is a co-educational Day school serving over 3500 students across six campuses in Bangladesh. 

Introduction 

Many children living in Bangladesh struggle to access a good education. Whilst public schooling is funded up until Grade 8, the schools are often overcrowded and they may be located some distance away from home. There is no support for parents to help with the associated costs of sending a child to school – travel, uniform, school books etc – and these costs can be a challenge for a family with limited means. The issue is often compounded by parents’ own limited education, which means they are more likely to see the value of their child helping out at home, rather than sending them on to school.  

Chittagong Grammar School is situated in an economically diverse area where those living in fortunate circumstances live, work and study near those living in more challenging circumstances. After nearly 20 years in education, we felt a personal mission to give back; to be a good neighbour and a good friend to our community,using our skills, experience and resources in education. 

We considered how the infrastructure of our school could offer so much more (in a country where space is a big commodity, we felt that empty classrooms at the end of the school day were a waste) 

hence the decision to incorporate a community school into our own campus.The Chittagong Grammar School Community School (CGS-CS) opens when our own school day ends, offering the children of deprived and socially marginalised families a free education in a school equipped with desirable facilities, ample resources and exciting learning experiences. Through this, we hope to empower children to improve their life chances and end the cycle of poverty. 

Planning  

The community school concept began as an internal initiative: providing the children of our support staff with a quality education. It quickly became clear, however, that such an approach had great potential for expansion, so we extended our intake to children living in nearby slums. 

With the increase in numbers, we had to recruit more teaching staff, which we achieved by employing newly qualified teachers. We understood that it would not be possible to use our own teachers full-time as it would elongate their day considerably, but nevertheless, our teachers were eager to support the project in some way. At first, they offered to give up a proportion of their salary but we asked instead, for them to give some of their time and expertise. The now work closely with our newly qualified teachers to develop their professional skills and offer the benefit of their years of expertise on areas such as pastoral issues, lesson planning and academic development. 

We chose to focus on the early years of education as the area where we could make the biggest impact in terms of learning and life chances, so our community school begins at Kindergarten and runs through to Grade 5. 

The community school costs over $400,000 to run each year, approximately $50 per month for each of the 690 pupils. 65% of the costs of the community school are operational and absorbed by Chittagong Grammar School. These include the cost of the premises, generator for electricity and heating. The remaining 35% approximately, $ 140,000, is raised from individual donors, or occasionally corporate sponsors, and relates tothe cost of meals, books, equipment, uniforms and school activities. Using the existing premises and resources of Chittagong Grammar School has been a cost-effective way of running the school and ensuring its future long-term. 

Activity 

The overriding philosophy with our community school is that our students should be treated as our own students are: that they have access to the resources they have, and a holistic programme of education to inspire them to success. 

It runs for five days a week beginning when our existing school day ends, and finishing 4-5 hours after our own school day (the day finishes earlier for younger pupils).We structure classes loosely on age but with an eye to ability. Some students are academically behind due to the fact that they have never been to school, although pleasingly, they progress quickly and are soon able to join their peers.The children study a variety of subjects linked to the national curriculum such as Bengali, English, Maths, Art, and Social Sciences. 

Every student from Grade 7 upwards is asked to spend a minimum of two hours every week supporting the community school in some way. At first, some students were a little reluctant to give up their time but they quickly learned the value and joy of giving, and are now the programme’s biggest advocates. 

Students’ volunteering time is spent in many ways. For example, they might be paired with a student to go and buy some essential resources, such as a pair of shoes, working to a budget set by the school. This very personal task forges warm and close bonds with the community school students and teaches our own students independence and the value of money. 

Our students also act as mentors in lessons, overseeing a couple of community school students at a time, helping them get to grips with tasks in Maths or English. This develops our students’ communication skills and shows the impact they can make to others in a mentor role. 

As well as supporting the community school teachers’ professional development, many of our teachers have a presence in the classroom too. They provide extra support to those children who are struggling with school work, and oversee the children’s academic development, looking at their exercise books and checking reports to support the community school teachers in making progress with every child. 

We also embrace opportunities for our schools to come together, whether it’s the Holi festival, through artistic performances, Sports Day or through Round Square events, such as the recent regional AGM. It is important to demonstrate to our students the value of integration and whilst the community school pupils are benefiting from our support, there is much we can learn and enjoy of their skills and talents too. 

Challenges 

• Overcoming initial resistance – There is a common phrase in Bangladesh, ‘Hobe na’, that translates as “it cannot be done” and perhaps if we had given into this expectation, we would not have succeeded in overcoming the many obstacles one faces in running such an initiative. 
• The first is the enormity of the task. Running a community school is like running another big school. It is not a sideline project; it needs real attention, and is not for the feint-hearted. In fact, it is more difficult than running an independent school.  
• Working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds – The children in our community school are more likely to face challenging circumstances at home, they may be living in homes that have values counter to our own, and these issues find their way into the classroom. There was a time, for example, when a student told us that she did not want to go home because if she went home, she would be married to an older man who lived on the other side of the country. We had a responsibility to support our student with this issue, informing the relevant authorities and speaking to the parents. 
• As well as ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our community school students, we have to be observant of their health. Should situations occur (for example, a child has an accident and needs medical attention at hospital) we need to offer the same duty of care that we would to our own pupils. But the additional pressure lies in the fact that it may be harder to reach that child’s parent for support. Due to the nature of their work, they may be working far away and uncontactable. 
• Children joining our community school come from environments where hygiene is less rigorously enforced, and that opens up the possibility that infection or disease could spread through the school. As a precaution, we spend time teaching our community school children basic hygiene rules and provide them with a hygiene pack (soap, toothbrush etc) to reinforce them.   
• A further challenge we faced was that of pupil attendance. Many of the children at the community school have parents who work in transient, low-skilled jobs, and perhaps had limited formal education of their own. To incentivise parents to support their child’s school attendance, we offer monthly food rations to the family. 
• Our responsibilities, therefore, extend beyond the classroom: we have a role in the safety, well-being and personal lives of every student in our community school. 

Impact 

Chittagong Grammar School has six sites across Bangladesh and is proud to run a community school in every single one of them. We have extended the age catchment for our schools, taking children right up to Grade 8, at the point where they will take national exams. The numbers of students on roll has now grown to 690 and we expect to increase this even further in the coming years. 

Over the past seven years, it has been humbling to see the impact that the community school has made on the students, and this is most often evidenced in their elevated ambitions: they want to become pilots, doctors, perhaps even establish their own business – they can see a happy and successful future. 

The initiative has also benefitted our school community. By involving all students from Grade 7, we have been able to see individuals of all skills and abilities gain from the experience, rather than just those who might naturally volunteer. Students learn humility and gain a range of skills; communication, leadership and compassion. Those students who have participated in the programme for some time are already sharing with us their hope that they can continue to support the project, or a similar project, after graduating from our school, proving that even when the obligation to support the project is removed, the enthusiasm remains. The impact is also seen in the service activities our students have been inspired to take on. One of our students, for example, has started her own cancer foundation, inspired by the passion to give back to others. 

Although it was far from our minds at the outset of the project, the community school has had a positive impact on Chittagong Grammar School’s reputation in the community. We often hear how happy parents are to enrol their children in our school, given the opportunities we offer to children in the wider community. It gives them a sense of reflected pride in the fact that their children are receiving a great education, and that they are helping other children access a great education too. 

The future 

We want to continue to increase the number of students we support but also formally establish the community school as an official school. This requires registration by the government and is a complex process. 

Having opened the door to these children during a crucial time in their development, we don’t want to close it again. We are considering ways that we can continue to support them once their time with us comes to an end. This might be in the form of vocational training or forming partnerships with other supportive organisations. 

Advice 

• Have a local focus – Keeping our intake local has enabled us to be more involved in the lives of the children we support.
• Engage all students – Making student support mandatory has enlightened all our students to their privileges and ensured they all gain from the experience of supporting and mentoring others.
• Promote to parents – Don’t be afraid to celebrate the impact you are making with parents. They have the capacity to donate, volunteer and amplify the learnings of students when returning to the family home after school.