The Impact and Evaluation of Boat Schools in Flood-Prone Bangladesh

Boat schools offer a transformative solution to the educational challenges faced by children in hard-to-reach areas, addressing the gap caused by geographical and infrastructural obstacles. By navigating through difficult terrain, they provide an innovative approach to education, particularly in flood-prone regions. However, the success of such projects depends heavily on proper planning, monitoring, evaluation, and feedback mechanisms. These practices are key to achieving meaningful development results, ensuring that lessons from previous initiatives are applied and future projects are refined for better outcomes.

According to UNICEF, 40% of Bangladesh’s population consists of children, with 600,000 out of school. To combat this, several partnerships have been formed across the country, aiming to enroll over 200,000 children in four key programs lasting 1 to 6 years. The focus is especially on rural areas, where three-quarters of the population live, but face challenges like extreme weather conditions, unstable income opportunities, and mass migration to urban centers like Dhaka. This migration further emphasizes the need for creative solutions, such as boat schools, to ensure that children in remote areas have access to education.

Boat Schools: Bridging the Gap in Access to Education Boat schools serve as mobile classrooms that offer educational access to children living in flood-prone regions such as the Haor basin, where 42% of villages lack primary schools. With co-funding from EAC, BRAC is establishing 2,000 single-classroom schools in urban slums to bring quality primary education to 62,000 out-of-school children. In the Haor region, the boat school project aims to reach 13,000 children through non-formal primary education. Key activities include:

• Training local boat manufacturers.
• Constructing and equipping 400 boats.
• Selecting and training 500 teachers.
• Creating 400 School Management Committees.

Objectives The primary goal of the boat school project is to develop comprehensive guidelines for monitoring and evaluating education and social welfare efforts in hard-to-reach areas. These guidelines will help collect both quantitative and qualitative data, identify gaps in current monitoring systems, and propose new processes to ensure success. By understanding the administrative and functional structures of boat schools and analyzing key performance indicators, the project can measure its success and inform future implementations. Sustainability will be key, with a focus on community involvement and engagement, as each boat school is designed to last at least 20 years.

Evaluation Design and Approach Study Design, Methodology, and Tools This evaluation is designed to generate both quantitative and qualitative data to inform the development of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for boat schools. Various methods will be employed to ensure a robust evaluation, including:

• Discussions with students and teachers.
• In-depth interviews with key informants, including parents and guardians.
• Interviews with education organizations responsible for monitoring and evaluation.
• Focus group discussions (FGDs) with project personnel.

A case study approach will be used to explore how social innovation through boat schools is transforming education in remote areas. The evaluation process will take approximately 3 to 4 months, focusing on planning, data collection, and analysis.

Project Description: EAC/BRAC Boat Schools The EAC/BRAC Boat Schools project is targeted at children in flood-prone regions like Haor and Beel in Bangladesh, where geography, poverty, and lack of infrastructure create significant educational barriers. Through mobile classrooms on boats, the project is addressing these challenges head-on. This evaluation will highlight the impact of the initiative and offer insights into how it might be replicated in other vulnerable areas.

The floating schools aim to:

• Increase literacy rates.
• Promote local economic development.
• Empower women.
• Improve the overall quality of life.
• Ensure inclusive education for all primary school-aged children in these regions.

Conclusion BRAC’s boat schools exemplify grassroots social innovation in education, providing a bottom-up solution to a top-down problem. By addressing the significant challenges posed by geography and climate, this model overcomes the disruptions that prevent children from attending school. While the future impact in terms of secondary education and vocational training remains uncertain, the boat school project is a powerful example of how education can be made accessible, regardless of location. The long-term effects of these interventions, particularly on secondary enrollment or vocational education, will require continued monitoring and additional initiatives.

References:

• BRAC Floating School for Climate Change.
• Education and Child Organization, Children's Education.
• Jashim Uddin Ahmed, N. M. Ashikuzzaman, Aditi Sonia Mansur Mahmud. Social Innovation in Education: BRAC Boat Schools in Bangladesh.