Sakhawat Memorial Govt. Girls’ High School was founded by Roquiah Sakhawat   Hussain  in the year 1911 on 16th of March. Roquiah was born in a very conservative Muslim Jamindar family in   the year 1880, at Rangpur district, in the Mithapur sub division, in a village called Payerabandh. A Bengali by birth, she was married at the age of sixteen to Syed Sakhawat Hussain of Bhagalpur in Bihar. Begum Roquiah never got the opportunity to attend school as her father was strictly against the education of girls. However, it was her passion for learning that enabled her to learn Bengali from her elder sister. Karimunnessa and English from her elder brother lbrahim Sabera.

Her brother had once given her an illustrated English book which ignited her desire for knowledge. Against heavy familial and social odds she succeeded in becoming an enlightened personality of her age. A clear manifestation of her advanced ideas and opinions on the condition of contemporary women was reflected in her sensitive writings like “Sultanas Dream”; ‘Aborodhbasini’ etc. Her wisdom and work transcended the narrow barriers of caste, creed, dogma, religion and aimed truly at the intellectual and economic empowerment of women. Her husband, a Deputy Magistrate was fully emmpathetic to her cause and had endowed her with a financial fortune with which she founded Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ School with only nine students.