Sammilani Institute

Sammilani Institute was established in jessore town in 1889 by Raybahadur jadunath majumdar, who was the chairman of the Jessore District. Jadunath Majumdar published a newspaper titled the Sammilani and the new institution possibly got the name after it. He got support from many members of the local elite in establishing the institution. Initially, it was a junior English school at Bejpara housed in a tin-roof hall room and with only a few students. In 1908, some miscreants burnt the school to ashes. Jadunath Majumdar then shifted the school to his own courthouse at the Loan Office Para. He also upgraded the school to a high English school. He was in charge of the school's management until his death in 1932.

The school did not receive any government support until 1966 and it met all its expenses from collections as students' fees and donations from local people. It is now housed in a complex with a three-storied building, an administrative building and an annex building. At the entrance of the complex, there is a beautiful temple and on the western side of it, a mosque. Also there is a Shaheed Minar in the compound. The school conducts classes from grade three to grade ten and the number of students was 281 in 1913, 408 in 1928 and 1,300 in 1998. The number of teachers in these years was 11, 17 and 27 respectively.

The school has a 10-member managing committee with the district deputy commissioner as the ex-officio chairman and its headmaster as the member-secretary. Others in the committee include two teachers' representatives and four representatives of guardians of the students. Hridaynath Dutta was the first headmaster of the school and he worked here during the years from 1889 to 1907.

The school conducts bratachari activities. It is also active in cultural activities including publication of wall magazine, recitation, music, drama and fine arts. Noted personalities such as Nimai Bhattacharya (writer), Kazi Hasan Habib (artist) and Pranab Ghosh (musician) studied in this school. Many students and teachers of the school took part in the war of liberation in 1971. [Amjad Hossain]