Classes at a high school in Rajshahi are held in dilapidated mud rooms. The school, with more than 350 students, is beset by problems, and in an age of advancing education it remains stuck in ancient times.

At a time when digital and multimedia classrooms, world-class teaching and fully equipped campuses are talked about everywhere, Sonadighi High School beside the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj highway takes you back to a place of learning from a hundred years ago.

A teacher at the school said that last year a storm blew the roof off the school building. Classes were closed for about a month. "That was a severe loss for us," he said.

The school was founded only 21 years ago in temporary mud rooms. Its founders dreamed of soon building a brick building, but that was not possible because the necessary help did not come. Now 355 students crowd together to study in these dark mud rooms, a significant share of them from small ethnic communities.

Mainul Islam, head teacher of Sonadighi Secondary School, said: "Indigenous students make up 40 per cent here. This section is completely illiterate."

There seems to be no end to the students' problems. All the students and teachers want them solved, and everyone wishes to see this grassroots school become a quality place of learning.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.