The idea of establishing a school for the children of expatriate Bangladeshi residents in Bahrain was originally conceived by some patriotic Bangladeshi community members in 1994. These community members worked under the close guidance of the then Ambassador of Bangladesh in Bahrain, H.E. Late Akhtar-ul Alam, towards the establishment of Bangladesh School Bahrain.

With Ambassador Alam’s active leadership, Bangladesh School Bahrain was granted a license to operate as a Foreign Private Educational Institution by the Ministry of Education, Bahrain, on 5 August 1995. The school was registered under the sponsorship of Bangladesh Club – Bahrain, which was the only registered community organization for expatriate Bangladeshis in Bahrain at the time. 58 subscribers along with Bangladesh Club contributed the initial capital for the school. The school formally started operation with six students in 1996.    

The first campus of the school was in Segaya, Manama, consisting of a single rented villa and the first Chairman of the Managing Committee was Professor Dr Khaliqur Rahman. Mr. Sharful Alam, the then First Secretary Labour at the Bangladesh Embassy, became the Chief Patron and the initial Management Committee of the school included the following: Mr. Fariduddin Shaikh,  Mr. Jamsher Ali, Mr. Mohammed Abdul Hye, Mr. Jahirul Islam, Mr. Joynal Abedin, Mr. Badrul Alam, Mr. Abdul Hashem, and Mr. S.N Banik. The first Principal of the School was a British national, Mrs. Balham.

The school in its initial phase faced a lot of financial constraints mainly due to the smaller number of students and high operational costs. At that stage, the then Ambassador Brigadier General Gyasuddin Ahmed Choudhury Bir Bikram took an active interest in resolving the school’s various problems. He appointed Mr. Sharful Alam (1996-97), the then First Secretary Labour of the Embassy, as the Chairman of the school. Mr. M. Mizanur Rahman (1997-2001), First Secretary Labour of Bangladesh Embassy took over as Chairman from Mr Alam. During that critical period of the school, the Patron of the school, Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, was an immense source of support and inspiration providing all kinds of financial and material help to enable the school overcomes its initial teething problems.  

A new Managing Committee of the school was elected in 2001 consisting of a cross section of community members. H.E. Anwar ul Alam was then the Ambassador and Patron in Chief of the school. Mr. Shafqat Anwar (2001-2006) was elected Chairman and Dr Zulfiqur Rahman (2001-2004), the then Counsellor of Bangladesh Embassy in Bahrain, was elected Vice Chairman. The first step of this committee was to move the school premises from Segaya to the Kanoo Compound, Gofool. The committee, with the enthusiastic participation of community members, also embarked on increasing student enrolment through a door-to-door campaign to make the school financially self-sufficient and reduce the continued dependence on external grant/donation. This effort witnessed an immediate positive result and the number of students in the school continued to increase steadily. The school’s financial situation also started improving due to funding assistance from various community sources. One noteworthy mention in this respect was the annual grant of $10,000 for a period of five years (from 2001 to 2005) totaling $50,000 received through the generous assistance of a senior community member Mr. Mohammed Muiz Chowdhury, provided by his employer, Arcapita. This grant not only eased the budget deficit of the school but provided enormous moral support to the community about the school’s longer term viability.

The Managing Committee also made efforts to obtain a plot of land for Bangladesh School to construct its own school building because the rented premises were not sufficient to accommodate the increasing number of students. In August 2004, a senior community member Engineer Mr. M Nurun Nabi (the  then Advisor to the Minister of Housing/Works and Municipalities of Bahrain) informed the then school that there are few available plots of land in A’Ali for allocation to educational institutes and Bangladesh School must immediately apply to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain for the allocation of a plot of land to avail this rare opportunity. The School Chairman Mr. Anwar coordinated the matter with the then Ambassador Professor Dr Anwarullah Chowdhury and an application for the land was submitted to His Majesty the King’s office by Ambassador Chowdhury. As a result of a closely coordinated effort over a period of almost one year, Bangladesh School Bahrain was finally allotted a plot of land, consisting of six bighas, in a prime plot in A’Ali in May 2005. The school will always remember the great contribution of Engineer M Nurun Nabi and the support of Ambassador Professor Anwarullah Chowdhury for their tremendous contribution in obtaining the plot of land for the school.   

Dr Sajeed Huq took over as the school Chairman in 2006. At that time, due to lack of consensus among some community members about the direction of the school and differences of opinion among the community organizations coupled with the then Embassy officials’ perspective of the school, Bangladesh School Bahrain started encountering management, administrative and strategic problems. Subsequently, the school’s sponsor Bangladesh Club’s operation was closed down by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Bahrain in 2010 which created a legal vacuum for Bangladesh School Bahrain as the Club was its legal sponsor. The closure of Bangladesh Club automatically led to the suspension of the license of Bangladesh School Bahrain. The school is currently in the process of obtaining approval for the resumption of the license from the Ministry of Education, Bahrain.    

The school has been administratively led by a number of Principals including Mrs. Bani Arora, Mr. Abdul Aziz, Mrs.  Suraiya Sharmin Shammi, Mr. Amanullah Salih, Dr. Shareeja Ali, Mrs. Shahida Begum and current Principal, Mr. Arun Nair. During the period from 2009 to 2016, the school had three more Managing Committee Chairmen namely, Engineer Mr Muhammad Mustafa, Mr. Cafayetullah Molla and Mr. M. Giasuddin.

In November 2016, there was a further significant development with regard to the school’s leadership. The then Ambassador of Bangladesh H.E. Major General Mominur Rahman, in consultation and full support of the Bangladeshi community members, the school parents and guardians and respectable members of the professionals from the community, decided to form a nine member Board of Directors comprising of Bangladeshi professionals and community leaders to lead the process of recovery of the school’s license from the Ministry of Education and then to commence the construction of the school building in the school’s own land in A’Ali. Mr. Shafqat Anwar was selected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Mr. Mohammed Muiz Chowdhury, Mr. Engineer M Nurun Nabi,  Mr. Engineer M. Zainul Abedin, Mr. M. Ghulam Rabbani, Mr. Fazlul Karim, Mr. Fuad Taher, Mr. M. Giasuddin and Mr. Engineer Abul Kalam Azad were selected as the members of the Board of Directors.  The new Board of Directors became the sole body to lead and manage the affairs of the school in a comprehensive manner.   

The school has made tangible progress towards commencing the construction of the school building on its own plot of land in A’Ali under the leadership of the current Ambassador of Bangladesh in Bahrain, Dr Mohammed Nazrul Islam, along with the current chairman, Mr. Mohammed Muiz Chowdhury. Detailed designs of the school building have been finalized, a contractor has been selected to construct the school and in January 2022, an application was made to obtain the building permit.

At present, the School offers both the National Curriculum of Bangladesh under Board of Education, Dhaka and the Cambridge International Curriculum. The National Curriculum of Bangladesh is offered from Grade 1 to 12, while the British International Curriculum is offered from Grade 6 to 10 as an option. The Cambridge International Curriculum was introduced in 2009 and classes are conducted from grade 6 to 10. The School started Grade 11 & 12 (Higher Secondary) classes for the National Curriculum of Bangladesh in 2013. At present, number of students at the School is approximately one thousand with approximately 60 academic staff.

The school which began with only six students in 1996 has now blossomed into a large academic institution. It still has a long way to go but we can plan for a better future for the school in the years to come. May Almighty Allah help us in all our endeavors to provide our children with a high-quality academic environment so that they can become worthy citizens of the world, add value to humanity and contribute to the process of national and societal development.