A tutoring group, started by a Bangladeshi immigrant couple 25 years ago, has become the go-to place for hundreds of low-income New York City students aspiring to ace the admission test for the city’s eight most selective public schools.
The group, Khan’s Tutorial, claims more than 380 of its students have made it to these elite New York City schools this year, and at least four of the seven black students offered a place at the top-ranking Stuyvesant High School had studied at Khan’s.
These public high schools have long been seen as a ticket for low-income students to enter the best colleges in the United States and embark on successful careers. But the fiercely competitive entrance exam that tests the mastery of math and English needs months of preparation and many families facing the hardships of poverty struggle to find the resources.
Khan’s Tutorial (KT), operating from 11 locations in the working class neighbourhoods of New York, claims to have kept its prices low to make it easy for all families to enroll. Now it also offers 30 full-scholarships to low-income black and Hispanic students who get free tutoring for a year at its various locations.
Along with providing tutoring for these competitive school tests, it also prepares students for tests like SAT for admissions to top colleges.
The company’s chairperson Nayeema Khan says it was started primarily to boost the chances of Bangladeshi students getting into these schools.
“My husband and I started this with renting a table for 300 dollars per month at a location in Jackson Heights and at that time we had just three students,” says Ms Khan, whose late husband Mansur Khan was a math teacher and also the assistant principal at a public high school in Harlem.
Today, it gets up to 3,000 students a week and is led by their son Ivan Khan, who too graduated from one of these top-notch schools and went on to earn a medical degree.
“My father’s dream was to promote education and I am trying to carry his legacy after his death,” says Ivan Khan. Mansur Khan died of cancer five years ago and the scholarships are awarded in his name.
Ivan Khan says there are thousands of Bangladeshi families in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens whose lives have been transformed because of his father’s efforts.
“I remember at the hospital there were five medical professionals--three doctors and two residents—surrounding him and we found out that all of them had studied at Khan’s,” he says.
The company now has 350 instructors, a majority of them of Bangladeshi descent who also studied at Khan’s and now pursuing professional careers alongside this job.
“The person who looks after our finances is studying to be a doctor and yet he comes during the weekends to help us,” says Ms Khan, adding, “He has been with us since grade four.”
A majority of Bangladeshi immigrants in New York are low-income, work on daily wage rates and most aspire to get their children the best possible education and help them succeed in life.
“We work on slim margins, but the volume of students helps us,” says Mr Khan.
The company also received an award for its work at the House of Commons in England.