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AyRojgar
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Mixed experienceA kindergarten principal in Dhaka, in a Prothom Alo report

From 235 students down to about 150, with a fruit stall beside the school

The school had 235 students before COVID-19; after the long closure about 60 new pupils enrolled and roughly 150 remain on the books. To keep it open she runs a fruit stall alongside and sells clothing online from one classroom.

This school at Adabor in Dhaka had 235 students before COVID-19. After the long closure about 60 new pupils enrolled in the new year and roughly 150 remain on the books — the children who dropped out during the shutdown did not come back. To keep the school running the principal opened a seasonal fruit stall alongside it, which has since become permanent, and stocked women's clothing in one of the classrooms to sell online. Unpaid house rent, and an unwillingness to walk away from an institution she built herself, are what keep her at it. The same report describes another Mohammadpur school three months behind on rent, and one at Matikata surviving by letting out three floors of its building. Nationally it counts about 40,000 kindergartens in crisis with roughly 1,000 already closed, in a sector of some 5 million students and a million teachers.

Lessons

  1. 1.When the core service stops, the premises themselves can earn: a fruit stall and online clothing kept this school's doors open
  2. 2.Enrolment is a school's real capital: pupils lost in a closure do not return, so the business shrinks permanently

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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