Anna Akter, a nine-year-old student at a floating school in Bangladeshi remote Natore district, says she might have missed out on her education during annual floods without her boat-based classroom. The same goes for Khushi Khatun, who also studies at the boat school where she gets free tuition and materials. "Had there been no such school, she would have had to walk two kilometers along a muddy path or take a boat journey which may have discouraged her from studying, said her father, a farmer in Pangasia village.
Each year, much of the Bangladesh countryside is hit by flooding. With around two thirds of the country's 160 million people living in rural areas, during a normal rainy season, some 1.5 million students are estimated to be affected by floods.
The boats first served as the school bus, collecting children from different riverside stops. Instead of the students going to school, the school reaches them," said Mohammed Rezwan, founder of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, the non-profit organization that introduced the country's first floating school system.
Rezwan, an architect, was born and brought up in Natore district, and he himself was lucky as he didn't miss school in the rainy season thanks to his family's boat. While at university, it occurred to him that if children couldn't make it to school, their classroom should go to them. So he established Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha in 1998 with $ 500 from his savings and scholarship money, and the floating school concept was launched in 2002.
The floating schools cover an area of 2 square km, offering primary level education to local children who might otherwise have stayed away from school. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha now also trains adult villagers on children's and women's rights, nutrition and health, and how to farm ducks and fish alongside vegetables in "floating gardens, helping them adapt to the impacts of climate change.
