Girl Child Education in Char Areas: Importance and Challenges

A char area is temporary or semi -permanent island or sandbar that forms within a river or along its banks because of the temperament of deposit and sand carried by flowing water. The education of girls has a vital role in human development but in riverine or char areas, it is determined by land, livelihood and access route unpredictability. This qualitative research tries to understand how girls and families in char settlements perceive the importance of girls receiving an education and how the environmental hazards and gender-based boundaries influence the registration, attendance and retention in the transition of upper primary to secondary education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among school going girls, out-of-school girls, parents, teachers and the community participants. Thematic analysis was applied in the analysis of the data. Results indicate that education is regarded as a safety measure and an ability in a place where floods and river erosion constantly interrupt everyday routine. However, seasonal isolation, displacement and document loss during flood seasons, as well as weakened institutional hope in irregular staffing and learning support, are all threats to schooling continuity. The barricades in adolescent girls are intensified by mobility and safety issues, pressure to conform to social reputation, and lack of menstrual hygiene needs that are associated with dignity-related absenteeism. The study proposed that continuity planning of flood month is the most viable beginning at school level. Schools don’t have to consider flood as unforeseen events, but create a predictable flood calendar with modified teaching programme, brief courses and re-entry schedules so that the girls who miss weeks are not academically and socially penalized when the flood resume