Church-run institutes win top award in Dhaka Bangladesh

(November 03, 2011) Four Church-run educational institutions in Dhaka won a prestigious government award on Wednesday for their outstanding achievements this year. Notre Dame College, St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Holy Cross College, and Holy Cross Girls’ High School ranked 5th, 6th, 8th and 13th respectively in this year’s Top 20 Educational Institutes Awards given out by the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board. All four Church institutions are run by Holy Cross Congregation. Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid handed out the prizes to the winning institutions’ headmasters and senior representatives at the board’s office in Dhaka. He said teachers are playing a great role in implementing the government’s Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh campaign, and called on them to offer encouragement to other schools to improve their achievements. He added that the nation can’t move forward if only a few institutions are doing well. Vision 2021 is an ambitious campaign by the government to make Bangladesh fully digitized by 2021. Board chairman professor Fahima Khatun said all the institutions met the necessary criteria needed to be eligible for the award which included: “study environment, academic performance, attendance and discipline.” The Church school heads said the award will inspire everyone at their institutions and also is a wake-up call to move forward.