The luckiest 3 among the Mro community

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Younguang Mro and two of his friends find themselves the luckiest among the Mro community as they are the first three from the community ever to study in a university.

The three young Mro men are studying towards their graduation in Chittagong University (CU).

Only 18 percent of the country’s literate people are from 45 Adivasi communities, with only 8 percent of them being women.

Inadequate number of educational institutions, the worst communication system in areas where the Adivavis live, absence of opportunities for the Adivasis to get education in their native languages, financial inabilities of families, shortage of skilled teachers, socio-economic uncertainties of the community, uncertainties in employment opportunities, and persistent political discriminations towards the Adivasis contribute to an annual 60 to 70 percent dropout rate at primary level education among the Adivasi children, while the rate is 30 to 40 percent a year at the secondary level, leaving only a very few lucky enough to get higher education.

“You might wonder how it could be that only three students have made their way to higher education from the entire Mro community with a population of around 60 to 70 thousand. But it is true that there is no government school in many areas of Bandarban,” Younguang Mro told The Daily Star yesterday. He is studying Pali in CU, hailing from Sualok in Bandarban.

Younguang came to the capital yesterday to attend an Adivasi Student Convention based on the theme of ‘Quality Education for All: End Exclusion Now’, which was jointly organised by Oxfam G-B, and Research and Development Collective (RDC) in the auditorium of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh.

In standard well pronounced Bangla, a thin and shy young man, Younguang, spoke of his childhood memories when he regularly had to walk three hours up the hills to go to his primary school, and had to walk for another two and a half hours to return home.

Younguang found himself facing a plethora of problems after he and ten of his classmates had successfully completed their secondary education from among 59 students of the class.

But luck favoured him as he had a relative living in Rangamati, who afforded him lodging there for studying in a college. Four of his schoolmates also managed to get admitted to colleges, but finally only three of them including Younguang made it to the university for the first time ever from the community.

His two friends who share the luck with him are Youngrong Mro also studying Pali, and Kaingwai Mro, who is studying Bangla.

“My nation is helpless out their on the hills. They are simple and don’t demand much. I can’t take a job here after completing my education, as that will hamper my intention of serving my people. I will go back to the hills and become a teacher,” said Younguang with much emotion, when asked about his future plan.

“Our country is culturally diverse. This diversity has enriched us and it is a treasure we have. We must ensure that no child from any Adivasi community is deprived of quality education, and that no language is extinct,” said Associate Prof Mesbah Kamal, general secretary of RDC, who presided over the convention.

“Free access to quality education is a fundamental right of every human being. Commercialisation of education or doing business with education must be resisted and stopped,” he added.

“It is our responsibility to uphold the dignities of diverse Adivasi communities and their distinctive languages. You can’t always go on saying that we fought for the Bangla language, you must fight for the languages of other communities too, like Marma, Mro, and Chakma,” said eminent writer Dr Mohammad Zafar Iqbal in his chief guest’s speech.

“Our problem of discrimination towards the Adivasi people is deeply rooted among ourselves. Our parents don’t teach us that the first point to value in an individual is that he or she is a human being, and then come other identities like whether the person is an Adivasi or rich or poor,” he said.

“A society is more beautiful when it is diverse, diversity is beautiful!” he added.

Adivasi students from 23 communities and studying in different public universities attended the convention, organised as a part of a global action week for education for all.

Bivash Chakrabarti, programme coordinator of RDC, noted that the promise Bangladesh government had made in 2000 that no children will remain out of school by 2015 will not be possible to keep if governments continue to neglect ensuring Adivasi peoples’ education.

“An Adivasi education policy is necessary and the state should concentrate on how the policy will be formulated. Our policymakers don’t have a concept of our cultural diversity and the Adivasi people are considered as others in our society as if they came from the planet Mars,” said Dr HKS Arefin.

Four papers were presented by Adivasi students from Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong Univirsity, and Rajshahi University.

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