::: Star Insight :::

Guru Griho

The Pride of Kishoreganj

By Muklesur Rahman Liton from Kishoreganj

Educational institutes have always played an important role in fostering values and intellectual growth in our young boys and girls. There are many educational institutes scattered all over the country which have earned good reputation over the years in doing so. Many of these also have interesting histories behind their growth and development. This section will present stories of that.

Gurudayal Govt. College standing on the river Norshunda is the highest seat of learning in Kishoreganj, a northern haor district of Dhaka division. I had passed the most valuable period of my life in this college. Although it was a brief period, it was definitely the most formative one for my later life.

Babu Gurudayal Sarker

For a long time I had cherished the desire to say something about my dear college through my favourite newspaper The Daily Star. I now happily take the opportunity to write about my Alma Mater in the very first issue of Star Insight.

In the then East Bengal in 1943, there were only three colleges in the greater old Mymensingh district, namely, Gurudayal College, Anando Mohan College and Korotia Sadat College. Interestingly, both Babu Gurudayal Sarker and Anando Mohan Basu after whom the first two colleges were named came from Itna thana of Kishoreganj. Gurudayal Govt. College was established on 6 September, 1943 while the sub-continent was still under the British rule.

It was the Education Minister of the then East Bengal, Khan Bahadur Abdul Karim who first took initiative to set up a college named Kishoreganj College on 6 September, 1943. On 20 September Mr. E.G. Kript, ICS, Deputy Commissioner of Mymensingh inaugurated the college. It was, however, renamed after Babu Gurudayal Sarker following his donation of one lakh taka to the college in 1945. As far as it is known Babu Gurudayal Sarker was an illiterate fisherman of Itna thana.

At the beginning when the Principal was Dr. D.L. Das, the college followed the curriculum of Calcutta University. After the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, the College faced some acute problems as most of the Hindu scholarly teachers including Dr. Das who was at the centre of all the glorious achievements of the college, left for India. Now the curriculum and the responsibility of the college also changed from that of Calcutta University to Dhaka University. Despite all these changes, the college was running quite well.

In 1997 and 2000, Honours courses in 16 subjects and Master courses in 6 subjects were introduced respectively in addition to the existing Higher Secondary and Bachelor Degree courses. However, although the academic programmes had undergone a lot of expansion over the years, the infrastructure of the college has had little development. A much extended library, an auditorium and increasing number of Teachers' quarters need to be developed.

Md. Badar Uddin Khan Pathan, the present principal of the college says, “The Gurudayal College has a long tradition of success and we continue to uphold that prestige with our earnest efforts. In the Masters, session 2002 examination, 100% students passed in Social Welfare, 98.21% students passed in Accounting, 96.42% passed in Botany, 95% in Political Science, 86.95% in Management and, 79.16% students passed in Mathematics.”

He then adds with a great pride, “The College now has a foreign language institute where as many as ten foreign languages are being taught. The institute has thirty-two computers for the use of the students.”

The teachers and the students of the college also boast of their strong Rovers team. Ms. Fauzia Amin Dina, Assistant Professor in the department of Management and a Wood Base holder, says, “We have a den at our campus and there are more than 200 Rovers including 100 girl Rovers. Six other teachers of the college have been trained up in rovers scouting.”

“We received a national award in 2004 at Bahadurpur in Gazipur from the Prime Minister”, she added.

The Students' Union of the college has been inactive since 1996. Students in general are averse to the present-day student politics as they think it often brings about violence and bloodshed.

The students love their college very dearly. Munmun, a meritorious student of 2nd Year Honours in English says, “I love my college. It has a beautiful campus. The college, standing on the bank of river Norshunda, often seems to have just taken a bath in the river during the Monsoon and, glistens in the sun shine.”

This college has been the Alma Mater of such important personalities as the Former President of Bangladesh and the Chief justice, Shahabuddin Ahmed, the ex- Army Chiefs Major General Nuruddin Khan and Major GeneralAbdul Matin, the ex-Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor Abdul Mannan, ex-Deputy Speaker Advocate Abdul Hamid and many other eminent personalities of the country.