Panchagarh Correspondent :The educated youth from border villages are achieving self-sufficiency through computer training at the Ahnaf Computer Training Institute located in Tentulia, Panchagarh.
Computer training commenced in Tentulia, a border upazila across all three districts, in 2000 with a single PC. Presently, the Ahnaf Computer Training Institute is affiliated with the Bangladesh Technical Education Board and offers Basic Trade short courses (360 hours) utilizing approximately 10 laptops and 10 PCs. For nearly 24 years, it has been illuminating rural areas by providing computer training to the children of impoverished farmers in border villages. The institute’s director underwent training in the Basic 6 Mars computer course from the Panchagarh Youth Development Department during 2002-03.
At that time, Upazila Executive Officer Farhad Hossain allocated a room in the Upazila Parishad for computer training within the Rural BRDB Hall. With the support of Panchagarh BCE Director Babul Hossain, computer training was inaugurated through a grand ceremony featuring two computers. The first batch included twenty students who participated in the computer training. Babul Hossain from the Panchagarh BCE branch and Md. Delwar Hossain, a BCE student, conducted the computer classes. Consequently, the number of students interested in computer training grew steadily.
In 2001, watch merchant Emdadul Haque and Ansari Commercial Institute Director Rafiqul Islam Ansari increased the scope of computer training. At that time, the institution was run as a branch of Ansari Commercial Institute Ulipur under the name of “Genuine Computer Complex Training and Composing Center”. On December 31, 2020, when permission was granted to run short courses under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, the name of the “Genuine Computer Complex” was changed to “Ahnaf Computer Training Institute”. Over the years, about 5,000 unemployed students have received training at the computer training center.
After receiving computer training here, educated unemployed youth and young women are working as teachers in various educational institutions in the upazila. Computer teacher of Boalmari Girls High School Md. Rahmat Ali said that computer training started at the hands of the director of Ahnaf CTI, the first computer or digital touch in the upazila. Here, hundreds of educated unemployed youth and women from the area like me are working in government and private institutions after receiving computer training. He has been providing computer training to students by making hand notes with his own hands. Librarian of Tentulia Government College (retd.) Md. Shahadat Hossain Ranju said, the organization is playing a special pioneering role in making educated teenagers of the area self-reliant by providing computer training. If the government vocational training is started in the organization, other poor farmers’ sons and daughters of the area will be interested in training. Director of Ahnaf CTI MA Baset said, there have been many ups and downs to keep the computer organization running.
For 24 years, we have been playing the role of making educated teenagers of border villages self-reliant by providing computer training. If any ICT project is made by the government to provide vocational training to poor students under this organization, skilled citizens will be created from remote areas to build a smart Bangladesh.
