Floating Schools, Part 1

There are millions of kids in the world who do not go to brick and mortar schools (think of rural India and China). Instead, these young learners work on their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills wherever they can find a place to learn. Instead of thinking of these global microschools as strange, like many Americans would, these kids don’t give their learning space a second thought. Space is secondary to the primary focus of learning.

Most recently, Getting Smart’s Nate McClennen sat down with Mohammed Rezwan, who has spent over 20 years increasing school access for Bangladeshi students through what he calls a “floating school program.” Here is Part 1 of excerpts of their conversation:

“NM: So, let’s start with the big picture: a little bit about the context of the opportunities and challenges in Bangladesh as a country, and the education system in general, just to give our listeners who are more U.S.-centric some idea of the context.

“MR: Bangladesh is a low-lying delta, and 46 percent of the population here lives within 10 meters above sea level, and another 33 percent live within 5 meters. So, when the monsoon season starts, which is in June every year, a lot of water comes from the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. We have a network of thousands of rivers, canals, and wetlands, but our river system cannot hold that much water.”

“It overflows, and we get flooding every year. This is a country where one-fifth of the country’s area is water. When the flood comes, then another one-fifth goes underwater. When the big floods come, then two-thirds of the country goes underwater. The floods not only destroy crops and educational institutions, but they also prevent people from getting basic services.”

“Education and income-generating activities in rural areas become a big challenge. During the monsoon season, 750,000 children are affected; their education gets impacted by the flooding. Right now, we have more than 4 million children out of school.”

“Because of COVID-19, 20,000 schools were closed. Bangladesh had one of the longest school closures in the world. This is the situation in Bangladesh. In the remotest areas, it becomes very difficult to build schools because if you build schools, they are going to be destroyed.”

“So the only education option in such areas is the floating schools.”

“NM: Sounds like a huge challenge. How did you come up with the original idea for the floating schools? You’re, I think, an architect by training. So how did this solution come about? What was the first idea?”

“MR: I was born and grew up in one of the riverside communities where we are working. When I was a child, it was a challenge for every child there, and it still is in rural, flood-prone areas. When the floods come, then all the areas go underwater. If you have a boat, that can ensure you go to school.”

“Our family owned a boat that helped me go to school but I saw many of my friends and relatives who could not go to school. And I always thought that I should do something for my community in the rural areas. In Bangladesh, there are traditional floating gardens in southern Bangladesh that have been there for more than 400 years.”

“Farmers there go to floating markets on boats. They sell and buy vegetables there.”

“As I studied architecture, it was easy for me to think of the floating space. Bangladesh is a country where we not only have flooding but also cyclones. Every year, we get one or two cyclones. Sometimes there are big cyclones. This country’s people never give up. After every big cyclone and flood, they stand up again, prepare themselves, rebuild the community, and prepare for the next big natural disaster.”

“There are strong resilience qualities here. I thought that if I could connect these people with new knowledge and resources, they could do wonderful things. Taking inspiration from floating gardens and floating markets, all these things actually helped me design floating schools.”

“In 2002, we introduced the first school boat. It was not only a new solution for bringing school to flood-prone areas but also a new concept globally, and it was not easy at the beginning. There were a lot of challenges. Communities were skeptical. So, on day one of introducing the floating school, we got one student. Within a week, we got a few more, and eventually, we got 30 students. They came one by one. Their parents saw the impact because in the rural areas, parents are much more concerned about the safety of girls. If the girls need to travel a long way to go to school, the parents are not encouraged to send them to school. In our case, they can watch and see the girls getting an education at their doorsteps.”

“It saves time because these children have their parents in the fields, so they do not need to walk a long way. They can get an education at their doorsteps. When they saw that this floating school, this floating space, can bring benefits not only to the children but to the whole family, it created the demand in the rural community for more floating schools. We introduced more boats and provided information and skills training. We introduced libraries on bigger boats and floating training centers with multimedia equipment.”

“All these boats are powered by solar energy, and we decided to share the surplus energy with the community. We introduced solar lanterns. We recycled the traditional lantern into solar. There was a need for healthcare facilities in the rural communities. I designed floating health clinics.”

“We found that the traditional floating garden doesn’t work in northern parts of Bangladesh. I designed a new floating structure that has floating decks, a vegetable garden, and fish enclosures – all on water – three types of income-generating activities for the landless people. Because in Bangladesh, half of the population is landless, and more than 30 percent of people live below the poverty line.”

“It helps people grow traditional varieties of crops. In that way, a family can save money for the future education of the children, and they can take better care of the children. So it’s an integrated development approach that helps not only the children but the full family and the whole community.”

“It helps them prepare for present challenges like flooding. At the same time, it helps them get better preparation for future big floods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted by 2050, 16 percent of Bangladesh’s land may go underwater, resulting in 20 millions climate refugees.”

“Another organization in the U.S., Climate Central, says that it would not take that long. It can happen very quickly within the next six years. It means that by 2030, around 40 percent of the land can permanently go underwater. So this is the situation in Bangladesh.”

“And then India has built fences all along the border with Bangladesh. So these Bangladeshi people must have their own solutions to stay on this land of water.”

We will continue with Part 2 tomorrow. Til then. SVB