JSC, PSC Examinees in Nasirnagar: Panic, not study in their minds

“Dear friend, at first take my love. Hope you are well. I am well too,” Primary School Certificate (PSC) examinee Bidushi Sutradhar wrote this while practising letter writing as part of her English exam preparation.

It was on Wednesday evening. She sat down to study but gave up after a while.

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She can't concentrate. She is irregular at school and returns home at tiffin break. Previously jolly, she now speaks very little, even with her parents.

The kid changed a lot after October 30 when mobs carried out attacks on several Hindu villages in Nasirnagar upazila of Brahmanbaria, vandalising over a hundred houses.

“We are trying to rid her of the panic that gripped her,” Shilpi Sutradhar, mother of the 11-year-old, told The Daily Star at their Kashipara house that too came under attack.

“She sits down to study but can't concentrate,” Shilpi said yesterday as Bidhushi was standing beside her.

“She is so scared that she does not want to go to school alone. Her father or elder brother takes her to school.”

Bidushi is a student of Nasirnagar Model Government Primary School, only 5-7 minutes' walk from home.

She was not willing to talk. She only said she does not enjoy study anymore and might not do well in the exams beginning on November 20.

Bidushi is not the only kid to suffer this trauma.

Her classmate, 11-year-old Pranoy Sutradhar, said, “I sit for study but get panicked whenever there is any noise.

I want to study seriously but I can't.”

His house is opposite to Bidushi's.

“How can my child pay attention to study after we lost almost all our valuables and while we live in fear all the time,” said his father, Haridas Sutradhar, as he was showing the damaged kitchen and toilet.

Anamika lives in the next house. She is attending the Junior School Certificate (JSC) exams that began two days after the attack.

She has a test on information and communication technology (ICT) today but she was not taking any preparation for that.

“I can't study at night as I am scared there would be attack again,” she said.

She got grade point 4.25 in PSC and hoped to do better in JSC but she is worried that the present situation might affect her exams.

PSC examinees Nishita Das and Shaikat Das of Paschimpara, Borsha Das of Namasudrapara and Payel Kumar of Ghoshpara are hardly studying since the attacks.

These correspondents yesterday visited Ghoshpara, Kashipara and Namasudrapara where about 350 families live. Each family, having school and college-going students and examinees, was affected by the attacks.

Priti Sutradhar, a student of Nasirnagar Degree College, said atmosphere before and after the attack is completely different.

“I did well in previous tests but not in psychology and philosophy tests that took place after the attack,” she said while talking about her BA second-year exam.

A teacher of Singhagram Uttara Govt Primary School, Shilu Rani said, “Many of my Hindu students are not attending classes since the attack. I came to know that parents are not sending them out of fear.”

Parents of the villages that came under attacks said what happened on October 30 centring a Facebook post “hurting the religious sentiment of Muslims” had left a huge impact on the education of their children.

Meanwhile, chairman of Comilla Education Board, Abdul Khaleq, visited the affected areas yesterday and talked to students of Hindu families.

“I told the students including the examinees to keep their spirit up,” he told this newspaper over phone.