Funding Crisis Forces School Closure in Ishwardi Indigenous Village, Children’s Education at Risk
A private school once stood in the tribal village of Ishwardi in Pabna. Besides regular lessons, students practiced their own language there. It closed a decade ago. The old school building, benches, chairs, tables and playground remain as before. Only the teachers and students are gone. A lock hangs on the school door. The yard that once rang with children’s voices is now silent. Tribal children here are now denied schooling, and they are also trapped in a web of poverty, hardship, social discrimination, lack of awareness and superstition.
About 5,000 tribal people live in this upazila. Among them, the Mal Pahariya community mostly lives in Marmi village of Dashuria union. The children of this village have no school of their own. They also have no way to learn or practice their own Mal Pahari language. Children must walk one to one and a half kilometers to a primary school in a nearby village. Many children do not want to walk that far, so they are losing interest in study. Local people built the child education center in Marmi in 1932 with help from several donor groups. Later, a solid building was built there. It closed in 2016 because of a money crisis.
Villagers said the school had more than fifty students. Besides lessons, students practiced their own Mal Pahari language there. Private groups and local people funded the school, but it closed in 2016 for lack of money. Now many children of the village do not go to school. They work in the fields with their parents. Some boys and girls walk one to one and a half kilometers to school, but their hardship never ends.
Mr. Amit Biswas, a tribal man from Marmi village, said he and his sister once studied at this school. It is now closed because of the money crisis. He said children in his area study at the primary school in the next village, one to one and a half kilometers away. Many of them do not want to go to a distant school. They go to farm work with their parents.
Mr. Sanjit Das of Marmi tribal village completed an honors degree at Ishwardi Government College. He said he and the other children of the village once studied at their own local school. Later it closed because of the money crisis. Now some children of the area study at the school in the next village.
Mr. Samar Biswas, a young man of Marmi tribal village, now works as a field coordinator at the Ishwardi Department of Livestock Services. He said his study began at this child education center. Later he studied at various schools and colleges and passed his BSS.
He also said they got the chance to study only because the center was in their village. After primary education there, more chances opened up. But he is worried because the center has closed. The rate of education in their community is still very low. When the school was in their own village, most children came to school. Now not everyone wants to go to a distant school. Parents also take their children to work instead of sending them far. If this goes on, he said, children will be fully deprived of education in the future.
