With an aim to bring down the school drop-out rate, especially during the winters, a school in Bangladesh launched its own “two-Taka bank” scheme in January 2019.
According to the scheme, each student of the Sharodeshwari Girls High School in Dinajpur in northern Bangladesh deposits two-Taka per month and during an emergency a student can avail loan from there as well.
Two Taka, which is approximately Rs 1.67, is not a big amount but for the 710 students of the school, this small amount has come to their aid during the winter.
School authorities informed that earlier, several students stopped coming to school during winter as they could not afford to buy warm clothes.
“The students are enthusiastic about the monthly deposit. Even though two taka is a nominal amount, but it has been of big support during an emergency- especially winter,” informed Mohammad Musaddek Hosen.
Hosen works as an assistant teacher in the school and is the man who initiated the scheme.
“Several students bought warm clothes last year by taking a loan from this bank. This led to the decrease in school drop-out rates,” Hosen added.
“The student dropout rate has decreased by 80 per cent since the bank was established,” he further said.
Hosen further informed that by 2019 end around 31000 taka was deposited in the bank and 80 underprivileged students were supported.
The money was mostly paid used to buy uniforms, notebooks, calculators and other educational stuff.
Moreover, the school has already launched a shop where the girls can sell handmade arts and crafts.
The revenue is shared between makers and the two-taka bank, school authorities added.