::: Star Insight :::

Guru Griho

From Mymensingh

Sherpur Govt. Victoria Academy: 121 years

Aminul Islam and Shuvra Kar

Sherpur Govt. Victoria Academy is a boys' school. This is one of the many schools of Bangladesh well into its second century.

One very successful student of this school is Binod Chandra (Tulshi Babu) who secured fourth place at the Metropolitan examination held in 1951 under Kolkata University. After partition, the school was run under the authority of Kolkata University till 1960. Babu Binod Chandra was later appointed as the Principal of Presidency College in Kolkata. Another alum of this school is Babu Kalyan Roy. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University in India. It's hard to find names of all the noteworthy alumni due to lack of good recordkeeping.

The school is in Sherpur, a district town. It was established on April 1, 1887 as Sherpur Victoria Academy. Charu Chandra Chowdhury, the then Zaminder of Nayani in Sherpur founded the school marking the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria of England. Zaminder Charu Chandra established it in honour of the Queen. Charu Chandra was also the founder-headmaster of the school and served it till 1901.

Later Babu Nirod Chandra Sen Gupta was appointed as its head. Babu Nirod Chandra served the school for about 40 years. During his tenure from 1901 to 1941, the school got permanent affiliation with Kolkata University. The school was nationalised in 1981 and was renamed Sherpur Govt. Victoria Academy. The people of Sherpur still remember the name of Babu Nirod Chandra for his remarkable contribution to the spreading of education in such a remote area. The school ground named Mrittabadi Maath saw football matches between Kolkata Mohanbagan and Bangladesh Mohammedan. Several matches were held from 1910 to 1920 between the two giants of this Sub-Continent.

Some of the people who served the school since 1981 are Abdul Kafi, Abdul Ali Bhuiyan, Abul Hossain Akanda, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Md. Motiullah, Sunil Baran Dey, Abdur Rafiq, Mohammed Ali, Mohsin Ali, Habibullah Miah, Binoy Krishna Saha, Motilal Saha, Abdul Wahab, Abul Kalam, Mizanur Rahman and the present head of the school Md. Jahangir Alam, M.A. B. Ed, BCS.

The school runs three groups- Arts, Science and Commerce. Now there are 700 students. The school, however, has a lot of problems including shortage of classrooms. Now there are 13 classrooms but that is simply not enough. The library is not up to the standards it should be. The hostel facilities should be increased, school sources said. The teachers also suffer from residential facilities.

The school has performed well in the SSC. A total of 15 students achieved GPA-5 this year and the passing rate was 94 percent. The passing rate at the SSC level was 87 percent with five GPA-5 recipients. Sources said that they came Runners-up in the regional cricket competition last year.

The present headmaster of the school Md. Jahangir Alam is trying his best to improve the school's performance and reputation. Infrastructural problems of the school should be addressed immediately.