Kajoli centers’ teachers’ annual reunion is one of the important programs organized by RIB. This program is organized every year just to facilitate interaction among the teachers and to make them understand about Kajoli program, its philosophical background, experiences, improvement, shortcomings and future initiatives. For that reason, an annual reunion was held on 19 November 2011 at Kajoli village in Magura district.
Around 130 teachers from Panchagar, Nilphamari and Rangpur, were present in the three days long reunion program. Kajoli center’s animators were also present in that program. Rib Chairman Dr. Shamsul Bari, Executive Director Meghna Guhathakurta, Kajoli Education Coordinator Saifuzzaman Rana and Assistant Program Coordinator MD. Monzurul Alam were also present in that reunion program.
Discussion with the animators
At the first day of the program, RIB chairman and the Executive Director discussed about the Kajoli model, its function and future plans. Dr. Shamsul Bari gave emphasis on the direct and spontaneous participation of the local peoples to make Kajoli model a successful one. RIB Chairman also explained that the local people’s direct participation and cooperation would ensure the sustainability of the Kajoli model and local people could ensure their ownership over the Kajoli centers. This is an important part of the Kajoli model that the RIB officials tried to make them understand. RIB has been trying to establish people’s ownership over the centers from the very beginning. RIB has been providing essential needs including building centers on the basis of local people’s
ownership, organizing Maa Shongothon (Mother organization), providing pocket cards, Pocket boards, poem book, art book, math book etc. RIB officials also talked about the issue of honorarium of teachers. Animators shared their personal experiences, local people’ attitude toward Kajoli model, future plan to RIB officials. Animators were also guided by the RIB officials to perform better by overcoming existing problems.
Kajoli centers visit
RIB officials, teachers and animators also visited the Kajoli centers. They were charmed by the excellent performance of the Kajoli students. Guests were particularly charmed by the students’ demonstration of identifying English card, identifying English letter, words, and English communication. Visiting teachers were also interested to use English cards in their centers.
Discussion with the teachers
The main aim of the three days long program was to discuss with the teachers about teachers’ experience, honorarium, building centers, mother organization etc. Teachers expressed their experiences that they felt happy while teaching the children, using different educational materials, and having fun with children. Teachers were happy that they received respect and recognition from the society for their work. They demanded more Centers and center office in their locality so that more people could get to know about the Kajoli model’s function. RIB Chairman gave hope to them for building infrastructure for those centres that do not have the facilities (Kendra Ghar) in the future. RIB officials also discussed about the Mother organization. RIB has a plan to establish mother organization for center and RIB wants to hand over center’s responsibility to the mother organization. It could be helpful for the sustainability of these centers. For that reason,. The teachers’ reunion program was a successful one. The three days long reunion program was ended by the concluding remarks of the RIB Chairman Dr. Shamsul Bari and the Executive Director Meghna Guhathakurta.