Students attend classes under open sky

Students of Angaridaha Government Primary School in Fulchari upazila of the district have been attending classes under the open sky for the last one and half years as the schoolhouse was devoured by the Jamuna River during flood in 2014.

Later, the school authorities managed another place for building a schoolhouse, but they have not been able to build it as yet.

"Classes are suspended whenever it rains, and we have to attend classes in adverse situations during summer and winter seasons," said Shefali Khatun, a Class V student.

"The schoolhouse was eroded by the Jamuna one and half years ago. Since then, education of the children has been hampered for want of accommodation," said Tahmina Begum, headmistress of the school.

Dropout of students has increased and many of them have got admitted to distant schools. Earlier, the school could not accommodate the large number of students, but now it has reduced to 260, she added.

"We appealed several times to the authorities concerned to build a schoolhouse here, but we have not received any response. The school managing committee cannot afford to build a new schoolhouse," said Suruj Mia, president of the school managing committee.

A 90-feet long schoolhouse is needed to accommodate all the classes, he added.

"We do not have enough funds for constructing a schoolhouse at present, so measures are being taken to collect more funds," said Shahidul Islam, assistant upazila education officer of Fulchari.