Floating Schools

The school enrolment rate of children across the river basin area of Kishoreganj in Bangladesh is 37% and the literacy rate of the adult population is a staggeringly low 16%. During the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, more than 90% of children and youths living in this area are left without access to any form of education, as the surrounding area floods and villages are forced onto tiny islands cut off by 30-40 feet of water. In addition to the poor education provisions, ill health, malnutrition and social exploitation form part of their daily lives. Children and youths are forced to work, often in very dangerous environments.

As a response, Learning for Life and partner POPI began work on an innovative solution. We constructed and facilitated two double decker boats that could operate as a school and a healthcare clinic. The "Floating Schools" travel from village to village during the monsoon season when villages are completely cut off from mainland services and conduct lessons for children who otherwise would not be able to attend school. In the evenings, the boats are used as resource centres for communities, and deliver health and social awareness presentations and shows. 

Following on from the success of our two large Floating Schools LfL has since identified pockets of the river basin areas that are so isolated during the flood season that, due to their large size, even our existing floating schools cannot reach. We have therefore recently established four smaller floating schools aboard  single decker boats that we have found can reach these isolated communities. These boats, named PAWA, Sophie, Willow, Freyja and Sayla, enable desperately poor children to be able to attend school throughout the year, an opportunity that would simply not be available to them otherwise.

In each Floating School 30 children (aged 6-11) attend lessons every morning and 30 adolescent girls attend an accredited programme on life skills development, rights and income generation in the afternoons.

The five ‘floating schools’ also act as resource centres and focal points for the community, empowering the entire population through social awareness education and health and hygiene information.