Rural Talent Advancement Program, RTAP

"A pilot project to increase hope, aspiration, and self-determination among rural students"

" RTAP scholarship test has become one of the most exciting educational events among high school students in Delduar Upazilla of Tangail," - the Headmaster of F. R. Khan High School echoed the sentiments of Delduar students, parents, and teachers. Delduar Upazilla has 26 High Schools with a student population of about 15,000. Since the time SpaandanB started this pilot project in 2003 to bring hope among rural students, it has been a great journey for all to see how the RTAP project is motivating thousands of students to work hard to compete and win. The average passing rate for S.S.C. candidates has increased to 70% and up compared to pre-RTAP times. About 50% of the RTAP scholarship recipients have got golden GPA in the recent S.S.C Exams. One of the goals of RTAP project is to create role models out of Delduar students themselves who can prove that success is possible even among all the difficulties of their lives. Besides the continuous ground work of SpaandanB Dhaka office and our partner organization, SpaandanB EC families visit Delduar every year and interact with students, teachers, and parents. In one of the visits, an EC member asked the students whether they can dream of being internationally famous and all the hands went up. It is amazing to see the enormous excitement and hope for a bright future. With little help, guidance, and motivational support, these hard-working students, teachers, and parents are ready to build a better future not only for themselves, but also for their community and for Bangladesh.

RTAP project activities:

With the vision of motivating rural students to excel even in the middle of many harshness of life, RTAP strives to achieve it by implementing several project components among 27 different high schools of delduar Upozilla. These components are -

• a competitive test to select 50 students for scholarship based on merit only - all rural students work hard to win and do not need to show the proof of their difficult financial condition
  
• various extra-curricular activities such as debate club, essay competition, student interaction, SSC model test, through which students develop skills to succeed in real life
  
• School library development that opens up a new world to many students
  
• Computer Laboratory development that brings them in touch with technology and opens up the world of information