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kalia olympiad

Kalia Upazila is a sub-district in the district Narail in the Division Khulna surrounded by beautiful rivers from all sides. The main rivers are Madhumati, Navaganga and Atharobaki which supply the living necessities: fish, irrigation for a large number of people. Famous in its surrounding areas for the biggest festival for celebrating the worship of Hindu God Jagannath and making the best sweet in the furthest areas, Kalia, though cut off from the main nearby cities by the rivers, has a rich culture and history of its own. But for this lack of communication, development in Kalia has been slower than the other parts of the country. And, education is one of the main victims of this slow development.

For unavailability of resources like books, teachers, and proper guideline, education in Kalia is comparatively backdated from many other parts of the country. Most of the times in schools, students are subjected to memorize the text books instead of being able to think, imagine and create outside the box. Which has confined their dreams and ambitions. Passing the exam and getting a certificate have become their sole purpose of education. Failure in finding the right path leads to drop out of a large number of students before 9th grade. Drug addiction, and involvement in violent student politics are also prevalent.

In my 9th grade, I met an Electrical Engineer from a renowned university in Bangladesh who motivated me to think beyond my limitations and guided me to overcome these obstacles. When I moved to the divisional city Khulna for my 11th and 12th grade studies, I wanted to change the situation prevailing in Kalia. After my graduation, I initiated an annual educational program in Kalia named 'Ravi Shankar Memorial Education Olympiad' in 2013 and continued since then. In this Olympiad, I motivated the students to think beyond their barriers by arranging an innovative examination and giving them a platform to ask their curious questions that they are discouraged to ask in the classroom. I introduced them to the outside world by inviting top university students from all around the country to speak to them and answer their curious questions. I made them realize their hidden potential by introducing them to the great people of the history of Kalia. I demonstrated in this Education Olympiad that education can be more fun than anything else.

Know Thyself: Know Your History
The Crew
The Examination
The Question-Answer Session
Involvement of the students
Movie Festival
'Do what you want' festival
The Prize Giving ceremony
Honoring good results in SSC examination
My responsibilities
The biggest achievement of my life
Future projects

Know Thyself: Know Your History

Kalia has a rich culture and history. Great musicians, poets, artists, altruists originated from Kalia. But unfortunately the history is almost forgotten today. To remind the students the great people of our history, in my program I featured a great musician and world famous Sitarist Ravi Shankar  whose paternal home was in Kalia. After weeks of research and days of editing, I made this documentary on Ravi Shankar and other great people of our land who have left a long lasting impact in the country and the world with their talent, excellence and generosity. My goal was to inspire the children to do great things by learning from their predecessors. Please watch this video with Caption on, and I am sure you will be inspired.

The Crew

In a meeting of Ex Student's Association of Kalia Pilot (ESKAP), the alumni organization of Kalia established in 1998 for preserving and flourishing its cultural heritage, I proposed the idea for arranging this educational program. My idea was accepted with applaud and I was given the lead in this program. Other members of ESKAP worked with me in the advertising campaign, postering and guarding the examination hall. After successfully launching the first Education Olympiad, I was selected the Vice President of ESKAP, even being the junior-most member.

Me, with President of ESKAP and another Senior Member.

Me (holding the microphone), on my left university students from Dhaka, Khulna, Faridpur and other places who came to this program at my request. On my right Professor Shuranjan Shaha (Writer of the Book 'Amar Kalia' (My Kalia), he is an expert in the history and culture of Kalia) along with teachers from Kalia Girls School and Kalia Secondary School as speakers in the question-answer session. -2014

The 2013 team with me, who came from Dhaka and Khulna to help me making questions, examining papers, and speaking on the question-answer session.

The Examination

"How many of you think examinations are difficult?" I asked before the exam started. Almost all the hands raised up. "Well, today your idea about an exam is going to be changed. This will be the most interesting exam you have ever attended."

I set the question with 5 of my friends coming from Dhaka and Khulna the night before the Olympiad. We had to work the entire night, about 7 hours, making the question as interesting as possible. We made sure that only a student's creativity and innovation is evaluated in this exam. It was an open book exam, so we also had to ensure that the questions are not directly found in books and they were designed to teach them how to think outside the box. Some of the questions were as easy as "Imagine Mr. Bean buys a Mountain dew can and drinks half of it, how many types of matters he is holding in his hand?" to as mathematical as "Two frogs were kept in a pool and the number of frogs doubles every day. If the pool is full with frogs on the 16th day, when was it half full of frogs?"

While examining the papers with my friends I was astonished to see the amount of creativity the students have put into their papers. It made me realize the hidden potential of the children of our country, if given the opportunity, they can do amazing things.

Correcting a print Mistake of the Question in blackboard

Examining the Examination Hall

The Question-Answer Session

The most exciting part of the program was this. In our examination system, the teachers create the questions and the students has to answer them. In this system many of their curious questions in their mind remain unanswered. So, we gave them an open spot for asking whatever question is in their mind. No question was 'absurd' or 'nonsense', we answered all their curious questions with logic and science. I invited university students of Science, Engineering, Medical, Business and other fields to answer their questions from different fields of knowledge. The excitement of the students was overwhelming. We got so many questions that in the end, we had to provide the students small pieces of paper to give us the questions in written form. We were amazed by the depth of thinking of the students, some questions were difficult for the best students of our country to answer. We got questions like "If the earth is rotating, why don't we fall from the earth?", "As electron circles around the nucleus, does nucleus circles around anything?", "Why our hair turns gray when we get old?", "Who invented the first two storied building?" and many more.

My purpose of this session was to tell the students that nothing is beyond questioning and nothing is beyond their understanding, and I believe I have done it well.

Students With questions to ask.

Our team of 2013

One student Asking a question.

    Olympiad 2013

   Olympiad 2014

    Me, answering a question about Newton's first law -2014

Saurav, a Mechanical Engineering student answering a question about the Bermuda Triangle -2013

Abraham Lincoln, an MBA student in the University of Dhaka, answering a question about Business. -2013

   Some questions were so intelligent that we didn't know the answers.

Involvement of the students

The students were excited the throughout the program. In both 2013 and 2014, the program was arranged in Eid vacation. Disregarding that the spontaneous attendance of students was noteworthy.

2013

2014

Movie Festival

To broaden the imagination and inquisitive mind of the student, we displayed an educational movie in projector. The movie for 2013 was 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' and 2014 was 'Meet the Robinsons'.

'Do what you want' festival

I believe there should be no boundaries of what a someone's talent should be. So, in this part of the program, the students were told to show whatever talent they possess. They spontaneously recited poetry, told jokes, even brought up a serious political discussion. Each of them were given a gift as an inspiration.

    Jokes!

Poetry

The Prize Giving ceremony

I carefully selected 6 books to be given as prizes to the best performers in the examination. 3 students from class 6 to 8 and 3 students from class 9 and 10 were given a book as a prize. As books without text books are not easily found in Kalia, so we requested the winners to share the books with their friends. In this Olympiad there were no winning or losing. Everyone was a winner, because everyone went home learning something new.

Announcing the result

Prize Distribution

2014

Professor Suranjan Shaha, giving a prize and shaking hands with Dipto, a Class-10 student for asking an intelligent question.

2013

Honorable Mayor of Kalia, Mr. Tuku Biswash is distributing prizes to the top scorers of the examination.

Me, giving flower to Class-9 student Dipto for reciting the Famous poetry 'Bidrohi' (The Rebel) by Kazi Nazrul Islam.

    Wahidur Rahman gives flower to a student for answering a question.

Honoring good results in SSC examination

The best way to sustain a good work is to motivate it. To motivate the students who made a good result in the previous year's School Secondary Certificate (SSC) examination, they were given a prize as an honor of their excellence. It inspires them to do better in future and motivates the next generation of students to do like them. Respectable Mayor of Kalia, Principal of Kalia Secondary School, Principal of Kulshur High School, Vice Principal of Kalia Secondary School, and Founder of ESKAP distributed the prizes to the students.

My responsibilities

I needed over a month of preparation ahead to arrange this Olympiad. Almost 90% of the works were directly or indirectly done by me. I talked to the sponsors, held several meetings with the Member of Parliament of Kalia for legal permission and finances, I designed, printed and posted the posters, went to each class of 4 schools announcing the program, distributing prospectus to students and teachers, invited the high school teachers and my friends from Dhaka and Khulna as speakers, phoned the students about updates on the Olympiad, set the questions, examined the papers, answered the curious questions of students, announced the results, distributed prizes, planned and executed the entire program. When I first started this Olympiad, I wanted to distribute knowledge to the students. But knowledge is such an amazing thing that it comes back when you give it to someone. By this program I have learnt how to lead my elders, how to communicate with a large number of people. And mostly it taught me how many students with potential is hiding in our schools unnoticed by the education system.

The biggest achievement of my life

After the Olympiad I went to Kalia Secondary School and the students were overjoyed to see me. I took classes and tried to make them interested in science. In my last class the students gave me a thank you note that I consider the biggest achievement of my life.

Translation:

                                                                                                                                       Date: 08. 01. 2014

Masum brother,

You have spent your valuable time for teaching us science. In this 5 days of classes you have taught us some of the main topics of science, that is: Atom, Gravitational force, Mass, Light etc. and you have given us elaborate knowledge about all of them. By taking our classes you have created a remarkable interest in science in us. This learning is highly valuable to us. We shall use this knowledge in our future life. We are grateful to you for giving us this valuable knowledge. You are the pride of our Kalia. We are also proud as students, being able to acquire this knowledge of science from you. Thank you very much from us. We pray to God that you may succeed in the goal of your life. 

On behalf of students of class- 8,

Joy, Tonu, Orko, Emon.

Future projects

In Kalia, there is hardly any internet connection. Which again resulted in poor communication. But within a few months a new internet company will invest in Kalia and make internet available and cheap for everyone. In future, I wish to take virtual classes to the students and actively communicate with them through video call. I have a plan to make a website where village students will post their curious questions and interested volunteers will come forward and solve them.

One person cannot change everything. But a change always starts from one person. I am proud to be the ignition of change that is happening in my hometown Kalia.