Rethink Education: Celebrating the first anniversary of IFNB in Dhaka
Barishal Youth Society recently organised an event titled ‘Rethink Education’ at Jatra Biroti Rooftop Restaurant in collaboration with German based NGO IFNB and Green Ink Bangladesh
Jahidul Islam is a 10-year old boy living in Barishal. It has been two years since he last went to school.
His mother died in 2017 and since then he has been living with his father and helping him with household chores.
Recently, Jahid and his friend Sabbir made a smart dustbin in association with 'Barishal Nook', an initiative run by Barishal Youth Society (BYS).
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In future, he wants to establish a launch business.
It is not only Jahidul, 80 other learners have also acquired self-designed learning from Barishal Nook and developed their skills and financial situations.
On 19 December, 2021, BYS organised an event titled 'Rethink Education' at Jatra Biroti Rooftop Restaurant in collaboration with IFNB (Initiative for New Education) and Green Ink Bangladesh.
IFNB is a German based non-profit organisation that works on bringing innovation in education through promoting self-designed learning.
The event aimed to celebrate the organisation's one year anniversary in Dhaka.
Barishal Nook enables marginalised community members to pursue their own education based on their individual needs, interests, passions and dreams.
Ehsan Kabir, country representative at IFNB shared with us that Nook is their first project in Bangladesh.
They started their operations eight months ago in Barishal and hope to start in Dhaka very soon.
He added that they are supporting BYS with fundings and technical aspects.
Regarding the project's outcome, he said, "We began with five learners and within less than a year, we got 80 learners. 70% of our learners are dropouts or from marginalised communities."
"Besides, we maintained 50-50 attendance of male and female learners. We hope by the end of the next year we will have at least 2,000 learners all over Bangladesh," he added.
Barishal Nook contributes to important Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) such as SDG 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work for all) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).
"Currently, we are running eight projects and Nook is one of them. In reality, we have not been able to ensure mainstream education for marginalised communities. That is why we have built this alternative platform Nook where you can learn on your own without a teacher," said Faez Belal, founder of BYS.
He said that with the collaboration with IFNB, they have managed to progress this far.
"Together with our partners, we work to push the boundaries of modern education for a better future," he added.
Md Akter Uddin, country coordinator at UNV, Thibaut Hamm, project officer at AFD, Jolly Nur Haque, director, program development and learning at Plan International and other eminent guests from the development sector participated in the event.
The annual gathering featured talented and creative youth learners from Barishal city who shared their experiences with the methods of self-designed learning, followed by a cultural programme performed by the youths.
