Moanoghar Residential School

The school was set up in 1980 to provide education to the children sheltered in Moanoghar Children’s Home. The school obtained accreditation from the Secondary and Higher Education Board of Comilla in 1982. Before the creation of Moanoghar Residential School, students of Rangapani Catchment Area had to trudge 5-6 kilometres daily in order to go to the nearest school in Rangamati town.

The school has three main academic buildings. They are: the old academic building, the Douglas A. Campbell Academic Building and the CHTDB Academic Building.

The school currently has more than 1,150 students, residential and non-residential, providing education from class primary to secondary levels as well as co-curricular activities. The students are from all ethnic communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), with distinct languages and cultures and so it is unique in terms of ethnic and cultural diversity in the entire CHT region.
The school is staffed with 32 qualified teachers and 5 non-teaching staff. A School Managing Committee (SMC) comprising of seven members is entrusted with overall guidance, leadership, monitoring and supervision of the school activities.

 

Residential Hostels

Initially Moanoghar was a children’s home to provide residential care and education to the orphans from across the CHT region. Over the years, residential facilities were extended to all disadvantaged children from different ethnic indigenous communities considering the dire need of their education in the hills.

 Currently there are 12 residential hostels, known as Bhavans, on the campus. They house more than 750 students whose homes are too far from the school or who hare highly disadvantaged. These hostels are Karuna Bhavan A & B Block, Jnanashree Bhavan, Shanti Bhavan, Dipti Bhavan, Prajna Bhavan, Siddhartha Bhavan, Suhrid Bhavan A & B Block, Moitree Bhavan, Bimal Bangsha Bhavan and Bishakha Bhavan (for girls).

 Each hostel has a tutor and an assistant tutor who look after the overall well-being and development of the children by carefully monitoring on a day-to-day basis. In addition there are two Superintendents, one for boys and one for girls.

 

Moanoghar Pre-Cadet School

Moanoghar Pre-Cadet School (MPS) was established in 1999 with an objective of  strengthening the basic foundation of primary education for children of neighbouring villages. This school, managed by a separate School Managing Committee (SMC) with participation from local community, is located on a small hill top nearby Rangapani village; it has a good reputation for education as well as sports. The land was allocated by Moanoghar in order to offer education to children of the wider community and, as it is the only kindergarten school in the locality, there are more and more applicants. Every year MPS receives children from playgroup to standard V.

 

Sponsorship and Higher Education Program

This program has two components: sponsorship and higher education program, which is now known as HELP (Higher Education Loan Program). 

Sponsorship is a special program to support the orphaned and most disadvantaged ethnic children at Moanoghar. So long this sponsorship program has created opportunities for education to hundreds of orphaned and disadvantaged children. In general, this program is for the children from primary to secondary levels. Any individual and organisations can contribute to this sponsorship program. To support a child, it costs BDT 3,500 – BDT 4,000 per month, which covers tuition, food, accommodation, education materials and primary health care. Sponsors can keep in touch with the sponsored students. Moanoghar reports to the sponsors regularly on the progress and overall growth of the sponsored children.  

Under Higher Education Program, now called Higher Education Loan Program - HELP, after SSC (secondary school certificate) Moanoghar supports the meritorious students for further education in universities, medical colleges, polytechnic and nursing institutes in different parts of Bangladesh. This HELP is mainly funded by the alumni and well-wishers from CHT communities. The Moanogharians and the Moanoghar Support Groups (MSG) of Rangamati, Khagrachari, Chittagong and Dhaka Chapters help raise funds for HELP through different fund raising events. 

Besides, to contribute to HELP some benevolent persons established endowment funds at Moanoghar in memory of their beloved parents or relatives. The interests accrued from these endowment funds are used to support the meritorious students under HELP. Currently there are 31 memorial endowment funds as below: 

1.      Niroda Bala Memorial Scholarship (2012)

2.      Karuna Dewan Memorial Scholarship (2015) 

3.      Anurupa-Kiran Chandra Dewan Memorial Scholarship (2015) 

4.      Arabinda-Parul Memorial Scholarship (2015) 

5.      Monika-Rabindra Lal Memorial Scholarship (2016)

6.      Supravat Memorial Scholarship (2016) 

7.      Chitta Ranjan Memorial Scholarship (2016)

8.      Amalendu Bikash Memorial Scholarship (2017) 

9.      Avala Memorial Scholarship (2018)   

10.  SS Chakma-Priti Chakma Scholarship (2019)

11.  Shanti Dewan Memorial Scholarship (2020)

12.  Buddhendu Bikash Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2020)

13.  Dr Bhagadatta Khisa Memorial Scholarship (2020)

14.  Kumar Nandit Roy Memorial Scholarship (2020)

15.  Kamala Devi Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2020)

16.  Girindra Bijoy Dewan-Madhury Dewan Memorial Scholarships (2021)

17.  Pingala-Bimalashwa Dewan Memorial Scholarship (2021)

18.  Khagendra Lal-Priti Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2021)

19.  Puranjoy Khisa-Chitrangoda Khisa Memorial Scholarship (2021)

20.  Pierre Marchand-Dipti Chakma Marchand Scholarship (2021)

21.  Moanoghar Founders' Scholarship 2021)

22.  Tilak-Suraja Memorial Scholarship (2022)

23.  Kali Ratan Khisa-Panchalata Khisa Memorial Scholarship (2022)

24.  Suraraj-Mangala Mala Memorial Scholarship (2022)

25.  Mahendra Lal-Jhumka Lata Memorial Scholarship (2022)

26.  Nilotpal Chakma-Pushpa Mala Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2022)

27.  Joy Narayan Chakma-Prativa Chakma Scholarship (2023)

28.  Mahendra Chakma-Ira Chakma Scholarship (2023)

29.  Kamal Krishna Chakma-Khetrapati Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2023)

30.  Ananda Mohan Chakma Memorial Scholarship (2023)

31.  Pulin Chandra Dewan-Nirupama Dewan Memorial Scholarship (2023)

 

The students of Moanoghar as well as poor but meritorious indigenous students from CHT region can apply for an education loan under HELP. Every year Moanoghar invites application from eligible students, usually in the 1st quarter each year. Currently 115 students are getting support from HELP. HELP has now opened up a new horizon for many meritorious students from the Hill Tracts to receive higher education in different higher educational institutions in the country.