The district of Sunamganj, especially its lower hinterland areas called 'haors', are known for high incidence of poverty and illiteracy. Poverty and illiteracy are highly correlated. Primary school enrolment of children of the poor and the extreme poor households in haor areas are pitifully low and the dropout rate is very high at a time when in Bangladesh, school enrolment, especially of girls, has been on a steep rise. There are many reasons behind this undesirable situation but the most important one is inaccessibility to schools during monsoon in that part of the country.
In haor areas, from the month of June till September and October, the cluster of houses (locally called 'hati') remain under head-deep water. One 'hati' is quite distant from the other and boat is the only medium of communication between the 'hatis'. The primary school is generally located in a bigger 'hati' so that children from different areas can go to that school. All is well for the households which own boats to transport their children to schools. But most of the poor and the extreme poor households in that area do not have boats. Thus the cost of reaching school by hired boats and returning homes hovers between Tk 15-20 a day. Even if the poor and the poorest households have boats to carry their children to schools, they choose not to do so because they would not surrender the very high opportunity to sending children to schools. For example, they could use the boat to catch fish in haors. It is the only source of income during the monsoon and each family fetches Tk 200-300 a day. The poor always value the present most, no matter whether the policy is sustainable or not.
There is another reason worth noting. During the monsoon, more often than not, the teachers in primary schools of haor areas allegedly remain absent. This discourages parents from sending their children to schools. Taken together, and especially among poor households, the enrolment rate remains low and dropout rate shoots up.
The deplorable situation came to the notice of the BRAC. A plan to raise enrolment rate and reduce dropout rates of children from poor families was soon worked out. While Dr Mahabub Hossain was the Executive Director, he had visited that area several times and proposed that floating schools could be the solution. In haor areas, a boat will be turned into a floating school. Such a water vessel will pick up the children of poor families for classes and after the end of classes, drop them to their respective hatis. During dry season, however, the boat would be anchored at a particular place and children would attend the floating school on foot. As of now, about 80 such floating schools are operating in Sunamganj haor areas (the number is much larger when other areas are considered) in the name of 'Shikkatori' under the aegis of the BRAC.
The readers might be interested to know about the basics of the boat. It is made of steel (to reap the replacement reward) at an average cost of Tk 5,00,000 each. Of course, costs of engaging teachers, operators, and other items would raise the figure much more. A wooden boat would possibly have done the same job at a much lower cost but it might sink with 30 people aboard. There would also have been repairing expenses every year. Each boat is 45 feet in length and 11 ft in breadth. The sitting place or the classroom measures 26X11 ft. The distance of the roof from the sitting place is about 7 ft, and the width of the base of the boat is 9-10 ft. There are in total ten windows in the boat - 5 on each side. On the left side of the entry point inside the boat, there is a shoe-shelf. There is a latrine on the back of the boat. On the roof, there are two rows of benches for children to relax. There is an operator and an assistant for the boat. The floating boat or 'Shikahtori', as it is named, accommodates 30 students in each class (60 girls, 40 boys in total). Classes are held for three hours; each boat accommodates students of one grade who would continue till 5th grade. There is a management committee comprising guardians and BRAC staff.
Very recently this writer visited one such 'Shikkahtori' in haor areas. The boat is blue-coloured with a signboard saying: Shikkahtori, BRAC. As he entered the room that accommodates students of second grade, he found children sitting in two rows with books, slates and other teaching materials before them. There is a 3X5 ft blackboard, and beside that, a list of organising committee members is shown. Students have already decorated their boat with their drawings.
All of these 30 students come from very poor households who cannot afford to send children to schools during monsoon for want of transport cost. When asked about their food intake, it could be learnt that none of them could consume egg, meat or milk during the last two weeks or so. However, most of them could name a few countries participating in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup as a few 'hatis' have electricity and a fewer households, even poor ones, have TVs. Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc are their favourite players. The girl students informed had there been no school like this, they would have to stay idle at homes during the whole five months of the monsoon. When requested to sing a song, all of them smartly stood up and sang: "Amar baul moner ektarata, hazar nodir Bangladeshe…..dekhe kotoi joar-vata…" .
This scribe had also talked with parents as well as local elites. They are all very happy as their children could have access to education. They would like to see their children crossing the fifth grade and hope to generate surplus for pursuing studies at higher levels. That the children of very poor households abstain from schools due to economic hardships is nothing new either. It has been happening for ages in this poverty-stricken part of Bangladesh. All in the seat of power shed crocodile tears for the backward people. But none other than the BRAC so far felt the urge to do something practical and meaningful for them.
The writer is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]
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