Boat schooling - an innovation in education

Masum Billah When a student of English literature visits greater Sylhet, particularly Sunamganj, she will remember the famous lines of the romantic poet S T Coleridge, 'Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink'. One can change it a little bit thus: 'water, water everywhere, no school in sight'. We know Sylhet is called the land of haors or permanent marshland covering 30.2 per cent of its land. Despite the adverse conditions and isolation, people have managed to live in the haors of Sylhet for centuries. Their struggle with nature has helped acclimatise them to live in harmony with harsh natural surroundings. With the passage of time, the modern world has brought about changes in lifestyle and earning patterns. Education sadly has lagged behind leaving little or no effect on the haor areas of Sunamganj. Despite the fact that human communities have long inhabited the lap of nature surrounded by water, the light of education and modernity hardly touches them. We, the plain land people, and the state definitely have some responsibilities towards their enlightenment. Generally and traditionally in rural Bangladesh, boys are the first ones to be sent to school and girls can go to school only if the facility is not too far from home. Often, the nearest school is miles away and for girls this can represent an insurmountable challenge to their schooling. The picture of schooling in haor areas prove extremely dismal. BRAC Education has stepped in to fill the void with the promise of extending education facilities to those who would otherwise be deprived of schooling. Traditionally, people inhabiting Sunamganj haor area refrain from sending their children to school. Children deserve the light of education and it is our duty to deliver it. In line with BRAC's commitment to the outreach population, an extensive awareness raising campaign was launched that included different beneficiary groups such as boat making communities. From inception the campaign met with favourable response. In one research it is seen that in greater Sylhet children start schooling at the age of six and their percentage is 52. In plain land this rate is 50, in haor area and tea estate areas the figures are even lower. In order to make education easily accessible for children of haor communities, BRAC Education Program (EP) launched a boat schooling program in Sunamganj district. On 26th September 2011, a new chapter was opened in the history of education of the haor people. BRAC EP started schools on boats in two villages namely Dhorerpar and Rahamatpur on that day. Each boat will pick teachers and 30 registered students and dropped off home after finishing classes. At the launching event Dr Mahbub Hossain, the Executive Director of BRAC said, "BRAC works to support the government and our values are reflected in our work." Research reveals that 42 per cent of the villages in Sylhet have no primary schools. In terms of literacy rate also it lags far behind the national average. The literacy rate for the 7+ age group is 40.7 per cent and for adult population, it is 44.4 per cent whereas national rates are 48.5 per cent and 52.1 per cent respectively. The boat schooling launching programme has set an example of GO and NGO cooperation. Presently this boat schooling opportunity is extended to ten villages such as Rahamatpur, Bagani and Aktapara of Jamalganj Upazila, Dhararpar, Dhararpar of Bishamvar Upazila, Bhatital of Dirai Upazila, Raghunathpur of Shalla, Rameshorpur, Jagadishpur and Gazipur of Sonakani and Tahirpur Upazila. Total ten boats will hold schooling program for three hundred children. The programme has set an example for others to follow to fill educational needs of children in haor areas. The government can make such arrangements available for the haor people as well as for the children who cannot go to school due to flood in many parts of Bangladesh which is a common phenomenon. Every year, schooling of children is disrupted due to flooding but no tangible arrangements have been undertaken by authorities to alleviate the situation during floods. It is worthy of mention that BRAC primary schools have some 1.2 million children enrolled. Interestingly, most of the students are female who receive less priority than their male siblings when it comes to schooling. The presence of BRAC primary schools in their vicinity is helping transform parents' notions and age-old beliefs. So far almost 5.0 million children have graduated and received basic education from these BRAC primary schools, while nearly 95 per cent are continue to secondary schools where they demonstrate far better performance in terms of presence and participation in class, cultural events and academic results. Introducing boat schooling has opened new vistas for BRAC Education Program and it cherishes to borrow all-out cooperation from all concerned to make it a successful and sustainable project. (The writer is a Programme Manager of BRAC. He can be reached at email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com)