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Floating Schools of Chalan Beel: When the Classroom Comes by Boat
May 12, 2026
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In Bangladesh’s vast wetland region of Chalan Beel, the monsoon transforms villages into an endless sheet of water. Roads disappear, homes become isolated, and daily life slows to the rhythm of rising and falling floods. Yet even in this waterlogged landscape, one thing does not stop: education. Instead of children going to school, the school comes to them.
Eleven-year-old Mosammat Fatema Khatun waits each morning on the muddy bank of the Gumani River in Chatmohar, Pabna. When a wooden boat fitted with solar panels approaches, she steps aboard. This is her classroom, a literally floating school. The floating schools of Chalan Beel offer a local response to a much broader structural crisis. Across Bangladesh, climate hazards are increasingly disrupting children’s education.
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