A government residential school for hearing and speech impaired children in Jhenaidah opened at last after 12 years of completion of its construction work in 2008. However, the academic activities of the school have been hampered badly for want of teachers and other staff.
According to the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) sources, Jhenaidah office of the Public Works Department (PWD) had constructed separate dormitories for girls and boys, an administrative-academic building, headmaster’s residential quarter and residential quarters for the staffs that was completed on three acres of land in 2008.
However, the infrastructural structures could not come to any effect when no headmaster, trainer and other staffs were recruited in last 12 years. The doors, windows, sanitary equipments etc. were damaged and stolen during the decade long wait for opening. For lack of proper maintenance, the buildings also became damaged while plasters from the walls and roofs started falling off. The environment of the institute turned ghostly even during day times. At last, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Jhenaidah Saroj Kumar Nath came up with a timely intervention and noble initiative to open the institutions for children with disability.
During a visit to the residential school at Bat Tala about two kilometers from the district head quarters, this correspondent talked to a number of residential students, their guardians ad employees of the school.
Nayeb Ali Malita, a resident of village Kandarpadia under Kushtia Sadar upazila, said his 14-year-old son Julfikar and 10-year-old daughter Sufia were enrolled in the residential school. Witnessing the environment and behavior of the staffs and teachers, he expressed happiness and hoped that his children will grow with care in the government home.
Another guardian Muslima Khatun who came to see her 11-year daughter Jui at the residential school, said her family was free of any tension when the authorities had been taking care of her daughter with parents’ love and affection there. When contacted, Deputy Director of Jhenaidah DSW office Abdul Latif Sheikh said, they have opened the school with the advice and all-out cooperation of DC Saroj Kumar Nath, they have given the charges of the headmaster of the school to Urban Social Service Officer Mominur Rahman, he added.
The Deputy Director further said the positions of the house parent, a teacher, a hearing aid technician and a technical trade teacher is currently lying vacant. As the number of student with hearing and speech disability enrolling in the school was increasing, they have started the school considering their need. A total of 29 students including 12 girls were currently enrolled in the school. They have taken a target to enroll 60 students in the current session, Deputy Director added.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saroj Kumar Nath said the children with disability are no longer a burden to our society as they have proved their worth by participating in various sectors that has brought huge fame and honor to the country. The staff of the hearing and speech impaired residential school are playing a vital role in turning the disable children into good citizens through training them in technical trades, so that they can also contribute to the society alike others, DC Saroj Kumar Nath added.
