When a student of English literature visits greater Sylhet, especially Sunamganj, he will remember the famous lines of the Romantic poet S.T. Coleridge: 'Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.' He can change it a bit like this 'Water, water everywhere, no land visible or Water, water everywhere, no school in sight." We know that Sylhet is called the land of haors or permanent wetlands which covers 30.2 percent of the land. Despite the adverse conditions and isolation, people have been able to live in the haors of Sylhet for hundreds of years. Their fight with nature has given them the courage to adapt to the harshness of natural phenomena which have become a part of their lives.
But the world has seen quite a change in the way of life, earning, education which has had very little or no impact on this haor or wetland of Sunamganj. Of course, poets or nature lovers can just go to these areas for rest or travel to soothe their eyes. Permanent residence keeping them away from the world we call civilized (?) will not allow our minds and energy. Yet 'Homo sapiens' have been living in the lap of nature surrounded by water for a long time. The light of education and modernity cannot touch them. We are the people of the plains, the lucky people and the state Of course they have some responsibilities towards them. Usually and traditionally, boys in rural Bangladesh are sent to school first and girls can only go to school if the school is not too far from home. Often, the nearest school is a few miles away and for girls, this can represent an insurmountable challenge to their schooling. The schooling picture in the haor region proves to be very pathetic. Standing by the education deprived population, BRAC has come under the concept of education as it promises to provide educational facilities to people who have no alternative to schooling.
Traditionally, the natural location of the Sunamganj haor area does not send their children to school. In this era of computers and internet, they do not even think of sending them to school where we have promised so much to the nation. The light of education is their right and it is our duty to bring it to the children of the haor. Out of BRAC’s commitment to the masses, they started a campaign and explored all possible ways and means and spoke to the local boat builders and informed them that BRAC was going to provide primary education to the children of the haor.
People from all walks of life supported this initiative Welcome. A study has shown that in greater Sylhet, children start going to school at the age of six and their percentage is 52. In the plains, this rate is 50, in the haor areas 60 and in the tea garden areas 73. To make the dream of providing education to the underprivileged children of the haor areas a reality, BRAC Education Programme launched a boat schooling programme in Sunamganj district. On 26 September 2011, a new chapter in the history of education of the people of the haor areas began. BRAC Education Programme started boat schools in two villages, Dhorerpar and Rahmatpur. Each boat will pick up a teacher and 30 registered students from the nearby 'hati'. After the classes are over, they will be dropped off at their homes.
They consider it a great opportunity to get acquainted with letters and the alphabet. At the inauguration ceremony, BRAC Executive Director Dr. Mahbub Hossain said, “BRAC works to support the government. Our values are reflected in our work.” According to research statistics, it has been found that 42 percent of Sylhet’s villages do not have any primary schools. It is also far behind the national average in terms of literacy rate. The literacy rate for those above 7 years of age is 40.7 percent and for adults it is 44.4 percent, while the national rates are 48.5 percent and 52.1 percent respectively.
BRAC Executive Director Dr. Mahbub Hossain, BRAC Education Program Director Dr. Shafiqul Islam and Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Yasin Chowdhury were present at the inauguration ceremony to encourage the villagers and children to participate in the boat ride. It also sets an example of cooperation between government and non-government organizations. Now, the boat education facility is being expanded to ten villages like Rahmatpur, Bagani and Aktapara in Jamalganj upazila, Dharpar, Dharpar in Bishwambhar upazila, Bhatital in Dirai upazila, Raghunathpur in Shalla, Rameshwarpur in Sonakani, Jagadishpur and Gazipur and Tahirpur upazilas. A total of ten boats will run a schooling program for over three hundred children. This is an example for others to bring the deprived children of haor under the schooling program. The government can also make such arrangements for the people of haor and also for the children who are unable to go to school due to floods in many parts of Bangladesh as frequent floods are a common natural phenomenon here. Normal schooling is disrupted every year in several parts of Bangladesh but no practical measures have been taken yet except to bow to the will of nature and not go to school during floods.
It is pertinent to mention here that BRAC primary schools currently have 1.2 million students enrolled. It is further encouraging that most of them are girl students, who usually get second priority from their parents in going to school. The presence of BRAC primary schools in their vicinity has changed this perception of the parents to prove their old and prejudiced ideas. So far, about 5 million children have graduated from these BRAC primary schools and received basic education, while about 95 percent continue their studies in secondary school and they show much better performance in terms of class attendance, cultural aspects, participation in educational activities and academic results. The introduction of boat schooling has opened new horizons for BRAC education program and seeks full cooperation from all concerned to make it a successful and sustainable project.
