NARSINGDI: About one in four children of char villages in the district have been deprived of the right to have compulsory primary education due to their guardians poverty, ignorance and shortage of schools and lack of communication facilities, reports BSS.
The number of children aged between 5 to 10 years in 12 char unions of the district is about 15,000 to 20,000 are school going while 4,000 to 5,000 are treated as dropouts.
Due to geographical reasons most of the people of the char areas are unemployed and no venture was taken up for poverty alleviation.
Surrounded by water at char areas about 3,000 to 4,000 children in different chars of the district are engaged in earning their livelihood by catching fishes or working in crop fields or in different restaurants, hotels, factories in the district town.
According to District Primary Education Officer, there is shortage of schools in the char unions because these unions are situated at remote areas from the upazila headquarters.
Ashaduzzaman Azan, Chairman of Sreenagor char union parishad under Raipura upazila told the correspondent that about 1,200 to1,500 children aged between 5 to 10 years in the union is school going while over 300 are treated as dropouts. There are five primary schools in eight villages of the union.
Delwar Hossain, Chairman of Alock Bali char union parishad under Sadar upazila of the district said, over 1,500 to 1,600 children aged between 5 to10 years in the union are school going, of them about 400 children are missing their school.Chairman of others char unions also narrated the same. They said they had been encouraging the guardians to send their children in school for education, but most of the guardians not hearing them due to livelihood problem.