The light Niloufer Manzur lit

It was 1973. As the country has just been liberated, people started getting optimistic about future. A young teacher with two toddlers of her own took a unique initiative to build a bright future for children. Where else could she focus on, other than the very building block of society – education?

Niloufer Manzur formally founded the Sunbeams School on January 15, 1974, with only Tk 10,000 as capital, according to the school website. One of pioneers of English medium schools in the country, she never stopped promoting education until she breathed her last at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka at 00:55am on Tuesday (May 26, 2020).

Initially Niloufer, the principal of the school, would start the day once her husband Syed Manzur Elahi left for office. She and her colleagues – Ms Farida Taher and Ms Mustari Khan – would push aside living room furniture and set up classrooms. They taught 15 children of ages 4-8 in two rooms. When classes were over, they would rearrange the rooms as they were.

That was the beginning of the story and today the success of Sunbeams is not unknown to all.

In an article, published in a Bangla newspaper last year, Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director, Apex Footwear Limited, wrote that Niloufer Manzur would reckon all 900 students of the school as her own children.

“When she referred to as ‘my children’, we then understood she was not talking about us,” her son recalled.

He added that she used to get upset when her students faced any difficulties and she always thought about their wellbeing.

“No material gain could impress my mother. However, she could easily be convinced with just good behaviour,” he pointed out. “It’s my mother who taught me how to be self-reliant.”

In her message, as the head of the school, Niloufer Manzur wrote, “To know and to grow with my students has been my pride and privilege over the past forty five years.”

“It has been an exploration of sorts. We have come together each morning to meet the challenges of the day and to evolve together, to discover the novelty of learning, to navigate through the unexpected and unforeseen and ultimately to reach our destination,” she added.

“That has been the spirit of our journey each day. That is the essence of the excitement you sense around our school daily. That is our story”.

Encouraged by her husband and supported by friends, Niloufer Manzur decided to start a school that would offer a solid foundation in academics and the highest dictates of conscience.

The Janata Bank Limited gave her a loan of Taka 10,000 then, which she invested in buying 10 desks and benches that were painted red: the colour of prosperity.

At 8:00am on January 15, 1974, she wrote “SUNBEAMS” on a blackboard and rang the bell outside her small home at Indira Road.

In 1994, 20 years after its inception as an elementary school, Sunbeams opened a Senior Section with General Mannaf as the first Chairperson. The GCE Ordinary Level Courses were subsequently introduced in 1996 and the first batch completed their O’Levels in May 1998.

In 2007, Sunbeams moved to its own campus on over two acres of land, and its students completed their A’Levels for the first time in 2008.

Currently, there are 1,113 students in Sunbeams, mentored by 161 teachers and 81 support staff members.

Over the years, there have been notable changes in location, numbers and logistical details of the school.

But the sense of purpose that made a young teacher start her own school has remained etched in every brick of the school, just as clearly as the first day when she wrote “SUNBEAMS” on the blackboard…to inculcate in every student a sense of pride as a Bangladeshi.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed deep shock and sorrow at the death of Niloufer Manzur, widely acclaimed as an educationist.

The PM, in her condolence message, prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed profound sympathy to the bereaved family.

Ms. Niloufer was 74. She left behind her husband, Syed Manzur Elahi, former adviser to the caretaker government and chairman of Apex Footwear Ltd, son Syed Nasim Manzur, daughter Munize Manzur, daughter-in-law Dr Samia Huq, six grandchildren, sister Yasmeen Haque, brother Jamshed Chowdhury and a large host of friends, admirers and students.

Mrs Niloufer was the daughter of late Dr Mafiz Ali Chowdhury, a former member of parliament and minister in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s cabinet in 1972.

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