As classrooms are too cold

Students of classes three, four and five of a primary school in Kakina village of Kaliganj upazila cheerfully attend classes in their playground as it is too cold in the classrooms.

Students at Rudreshwar Government Primary School went out of the classrooms and made the playground as their classroom as they could sit in the sunlight.

Headmaster Archona Rani Borma told this correspondent that many students come from the Teesta river basin char areas and most of them do not have warm clothes. “Due to cold biting students and even teachers cannot remain in the classrooms, so teaching and learning are  hampered badly,” she said, adding they have been facing temperatures below 10 Degree Celsius for the last three weeks.

“The students came out of the classrooms and took their seat in the playground, where there is sunlight,” said Abul Kalam, a teacher. “We also feel better in the sun as the cold wave makes it uncomfortable to sit inside the classrooms,” he said, adding that it is a common thing in the remote and char area schools during the winter.

Rakibul Islam, a student of Class IV from Teesta river char Rudreshwar, said they have no warm clothes so they face untold suffering in the classrooms due to cold spell. “We feel happy attending classes in the sun and we encourage our teachers to teach us in the sun,” he said.

“If it is very cold we do not go to school,” said Roksana Akhter, a student of Class III. “We don't get sunlight in the morning, but we get it at noon when we are in the school, so we learn in our playground,” she said.

Teacher Sultana Rezia said students of Class I and Class II are the worst sufferers as they come to school in the morning when sun is not visible, and their attendance falls during cold spells. There are 320 students and seven teachers in the school, she said.

District Primary Education Officer Nabez Uddin Sarker told this correspondent that many students of schools in remote and char areas come from ultra poor families and most of them do not have warm clothes. “Students in many schools attend classes in their playground in the sun when they cannot stay in the classrooms due to the cold,” he said.