Rainy seasons are a bother for the students of Bhauman Talabaha Model High School in Kaliakoir upazila, Gazipur, as the school compound gets waterlogged and forces the students to cross a ramshackle bridge everyday to enter the academic building.
Sources said every year during the rainy season the school compound gets submerged in waist-deep rainwater. This year, the school remained closed for several days in the beginning of the rainy season.
It was reopened after the locals constructed a makeshift bamboo bridge, which cost Tk20,000, over the playground.
Harez Ali, the school’s headmaster, said it happens every year as the school authorities do not take any steps to prevent it. “It is hampering our academic activities,” he said.
Crossing the rickety bridge, students often drop their belongings in the water or fall in it themselves, said Afsana Akter, a 10th-grader in the school. Another student, Swarna Akter, said the school compound is beautiful, but it can rarely be utilized properly because of the rainwater.
The students also risk their lives every day as they have to cross unguarded rail tracks to enter the school.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Jasim Ali, head of the school’s management committee, said they had discussed the issue, but no measures had been taken to resolve it.
“We also requested the local administration for a guarded rail
crossing beside the school, but they have yet to take any steps in that regard,” he said.
When contacted, Habibur Rahman, Kaliakoir upazila nirbahi officer, said the schoolyard had been repaired once by the district administration, but no one had informed him about the recurring waterlogging. He assured that necessary steps would be taken to solve the problem.
Established in 2003 and nationalised in 2008, the school has become an institution for quality education in the local area. It currently has 481 students.
