Against all odds, a school thrives in the middle of the haor

It was around 7am. A girl walked from Baherbali village to the edge of the haor and stood there wearing a sky-blue kameez, white pajama, and a school bag on her shoulder. Her father stood beside her, holding her hand firmly in one hand, using a stick in the other to gauge the depth of the water ahead. The boat was late. Behind her stood five or six more students, all waiting for the same single boat to arrive.

Only half an hour remained before school started. But there were only two boats for nearly 300 students. For children from Baherbali and the surrounding villages, this is the only secondary school within reach.

A school surrounded by water

From a distance, it looks like some kind of disaster relief shelter. Water stretches in every direction, and in the middle of it stands a three-storey building, its head held high. The entire ground floor sits empty — for most of the year, it remains submerged in the haor's water. Classes run only on the second and third floors, so that the whole building seems to float on the water. There is no road to the school; the only way to reach it is by boat.

This is Baherbali SESDP Model High School, located in Maijchar Union of Bajitpur Upazila, Kishoreganj. Classes run here regularly every day, and attendance among both teachers and students is higher than at any nearby school. For nearly nine months of the year, the school's surroundings remain underwater, so the authorities themselves have arranged two boats for transport. This is how, day by day, in this remote haor region surrounded by water, the school keeps spreading the light of education.

Ripa Das, a seventh-grade student, said, "We have to wake up early to catch the boat. If someone misses the boat, they miss class that day too."

Over 300 boys and girls from five villages — Baherbali, Purakanda, Aynargop, Shibpur and Boyali — now study at the school. Since its founding, people in the surrounding villages seem to have found an opportunity — a chance to give their children a shot at a better future through education.

Ripa's father, Rafiq Uddin, said, "Since the school was built, interest among people here in educating their children has grown a great deal."

The school building was constructed under a Ministry of Education project then known as SESDP, now called the Secondary Education Sector Investment Programme (SESIP). Construction of the school building began in 2007 under this project and was completed in 2011. Classes formally began in 2013.

The project was aimed at expanding secondary education in disadvantaged and underdeveloped areas. A total of 83 schools were established across Bangladesh under the project, with the process covering construction, the launch of classes and government recognition. 

Every morning before classes and afternoon after school, a boat makes several trips, ferrying nearly 300 students and 10 teachers.

In July 2017, these 83 schools were brought under MPO (Monthly Pay Order) coverage. But Baherbali school has still not received full recognition. Although it has been brought under the MPO scheme up to Class 8, classes 9 and 10 have not received recognition.

Headteacher Pipon Chandra Das told The Business Standard that in 2017, the then-headteacher had failed to obtain recognition for the school up to Class 10.

"At the time, a letter was issued, but he did not submit the necessary documents. Now, we have reorganised all the required documents and applied again for MPO enlistment," he said.

He further said that in September 2025, under the interim government, a fresh call for MPO applications was issued nationwide. Taking that opportunity, the school applied online as well. Although the process is currently suspended at the government level, they have kept the necessary hard copies and documents preserved. The headmaster remains hopeful that once the process resumes, the school will be brought under it.

The school had only 35 to 40 students when classes began in 2013. That number has now grown to nearly 300. Ten teachers are engaged in teaching, and three office staff, including two peons, work at the school. It has a lab room, a multimedia classroom, and a teachers' room. Across the second and third floors, there are 14 spacious classrooms. Most students at the school pay half or have their fees fully waived. Fees for classes six through eight are Tk150, and for classes nine and ten, Tk200. Many students also receive scholarships based on results.

The headmaster said fees used to be even lower — Tk60 a month for classes six and seven, Tk70 for class eight, and Tk80 for classes nine and ten.

Computer teacher Hasan Kabir said, "We have only one lab room. We try to give students practical training with what we have. All our lab work runs on just three desktops given by the Deputy Commissioner. One broke down recently, and it cost Tk5,000 to repair. And one desktop was stolen outright."

The many odds facing one school 

The school's journey has been anything but smooth. Its biggest crisis is there aren't enough boats to carry 300 students across the water. In 2016, local lawmaker Afzal Hossain donated a boat that could carry 40 students at a time. That three-ton iron boat still travels from village to village, ferrying students. To keep the boat running and cover daily costs, students pay whatever they can afford — Tk5 to Tk10 a day.

Local resident Nur Islam said, "If the roads and communication here were better, it would be much better for the students. In bad weather, many students are too afraid to come to school, and parents don't want to send them either."

Every morning before classes and every afternoon after school, the boat makes several trips, carrying nearly three hundred students and 10 teachers.

"Sometimes when there are too many students, we have to stand the whole way on the boat. If we had a few more boats, it would be much better."

Sajid, seventh-grade student

At one point, the boat fell into extremely poor condition. Students' regular commute was then under serious threat. Had the boat not been repaired, travel to and from the school would have stopped altogether — so the school authorities sat down with the local community. With the community's cooperation, a committee was formed, and through that committee's initiative, the boat was eventually repaired — at a cost of around Tk1 lakh.

The headmaster said that initially, students travelled using only one boat. In 2019, funds given by the popular television magazine programme Ityadi were used to build a second boat.

In October 2019, Ityadi donated Tk10 lakh to the school. The money was used to repaint the school, build the second boat, install fans and repair parts of the floor with tiles and plaster.

Still, the problem hasn't been fully resolved. Sajid, a seventh-grade student, said, "Sometimes when there are too many students, we have to stand the whole way on the boat. If we had a few more boats, it would be much better."

Boatman Romij Uddin said, "I carry 40 to 50 students at a time, back and forth. It's a lot of risk to take. Once the boat even sank — but since the children know how to swim, no major accident happened."

The shortage of a playing field and of water is also a constant companion of this school. The field remains submerged for months, so students don't get the chance to play or exercise regularly. There's a water shortage too — there used to be two water taps, but one broke down and can no longer be used. A new tap has recently been installed for the students' convenience.

The headmaster said, "To make the field usable, soil would need to be brought in from around the area to raise the entire field. That requires a lot of money, which is hard for the school to arrange on its own. We've also applied for another water tap for the students."

There is a note of regret in his words about the field — if soil could be brought in to raise it, the children could play, transport would improve too, and if they got a few more boats, the biggest problem would be significantly eased, he believes.

Even in the dry season, students must walk one to three kilometres — along the narrow ridges between crop fields — from the five haor-adjacent villages of Baherbali, Purakanda, Boyali, Aynargop, and Parkachhua.

Ripa Das said, "There's no connecting road from the mainland to the school. So whether it's monsoon or dry season, we face the same suffering either way."

The headmaster mentioned that he had learned through a relevant source that the District Education Officer had asked them to submit a written application to help resolve the school's problems. Following that instruction, he submitted an application on 9 September, listing the school's problems.

"We hope the authorities will consider the matter seriously and take the necessary steps."

District Education Officer Shamsun Nahar Maksuda assured that they will inform senior officials about this matter. "It will take time, but we will try to find a solution," she said.

What keeps the school going

With no other secondary school in this remote haor-adjacent area, this school has become the only reliable seat of learning for local students. Despite its remote location, the academic standard at Baherbali High School is far from poor — its annual results are consistently good, with the SSC pass rate generally in the 80% range. For disadvantaged students in this remote haor region, such results are no small achievement.

The headmaster said, "This year our SSC pass rate is 76.06%. Seven students got a GPA of 4. Our pass rate has never dropped below 70; it usually stays above 80%. This time, results were a bit weaker everywhere, and ours were too. But this time, among all schools in Bajitpur Upazila, ours came first."

On the roof of the building, teachers and students have built, with their own hands, a beautiful garden of fruit and flowers. Seen from above, it looks like a small green island floating in the heart of the haor.

There is pride in the voice of Sajid, a sixth-grade student. "It makes us very happy to be able to study in such a beautiful school," he said. "Our teachers teach with a lot of care, and they make sure we understand each day's lessons."

The risky boat rides, the submerged playing field, the water shortage, the long wait for MPO recognition — these hardships remain daily companions, yet Baherbali High School's journey continues undeterred.

For the more than three hundred students of Baherbali, getting to school is still a journey that begins with waiting for a boat. Every morning, they cross the water to reach the classrooms where they hope to build a future beyond the haor.