In thousands of cities across the US, kids stand on street corners to meet the buses that will take them to school each morning. In the flooded wetlands of Bangladesh, kids’ schools come to them, courtesy of the nation’s floating, solar-powered classrooms. Millions of people are plagued by flooding in the South Asian country of Bangladesh each year. Rising waters caused by monsoon rains destroy villages in the nation’s wetlands. There, roads are often washed away. Communications are also cut. The yearly downpours are made worse by climate change. They present serious challenges for families with school-age children. That’s where architect Mohammed Rezwan’s invention comes in. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha (SSS) is Rezwan's nonprofit. He started it in 2002. It began with a single boat, broad-walled and flat. It had benches, blackboards, and solar-powered computers. Now, SSS boasts a whole fleet of boats. They shuttle from house to house. They pick up students for three-hour learning shifts. The students learn subjects like Bengali, math, and literature. “Right now, we have 2,240 pupils enrolled in 26 boat schools,” Madhusudan Karmaker, a senior manager at SSS, told Reuters. “Over 22,500 students have graduated so far, and during severe floods, these boats also double as shelters for displaced families.” SSS recently won this year’s UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy. The program has inspired similar floating schools in Nigeria, Cambodia, and other flood-heavy regions. For the families in Bangladesh and elsewhere, the boats present a way forward. “We never had the chance to study,” parent Sufia Khatun told Reuters. “But this boat lets my children dream of a better future.” Thought Question: What is something in your life that makes it easier for you to learn? Photo of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha from Reuters.
