DHAKA, July 1, 2025 (BSS) - The government has taken a project to build 10 secondary schools at 10 upazilas of haor areas of the country.

The estimated cost of the project is Taka 641.37 crore, Tk 76,000 of which is funded by the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD).

Superintendent Engineer Md. Asaduzzaman of the Department of Educational Engineering, Dhaka has been given the responsibility to conduct a survey in this regard. 

This information has been revealed in a letter signed by Deputy Secretary of Planning-2 of the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education SM Imrul Hasan on June 18.

It said the Department of Education Engineering under the Secondary and Higher Education Division has assigned additional responsibilities to Superintendent of the Head Office of the Department of Education Engineering Md Asaduzzaman as the 'Project Director' to examine the feasibility of establishing 10 secondary schools in selected haor areas.

According to sources in the Department of Education and Engineering, a preliminary proposal was sent to the Planning Commission on April 9 last year to implement the project in 423 haor-covered areas of the country - Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Brahmanbaria. 

A meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee was held at the Planning Commission on May 20 on that proposal. In the meeting, it was decided to have a neutral, skilled professional organization to complete the feasibility study and send the project documents back to the Planning Commission. The study proposal has been prepared in light of that decision.

Sources said that in July last year, the SFD mission representatives had urged to complete the survey work within three months during their visit to Bangladesh. 

In this context, a request was made in the meeting to urgently include the survey work of the 'Secondary Schools at Selected Upazila Sadar in Haor Area' project in the new unauthorized project list of the current fiscal year's ADP. The Education Adviser also agreed to this.

Md. Asaduzzaman told BSS that the decision has been taken to establish the schools to bring the light of education to the backward people of the haor areas. A survey is underway to find out where and how those can be established, he added. 

According to sources in the Ministry of Education, the big haor of Kishoreganj district consists of Ashtagram, Itna, Mithamoin and Nikli upazilas.

The people of this vast area of ??990,396 hectares lag behind all other areas of Bangladesh. 

The literacy rate of the people living in the seven unions of Ashtagram, eight unions of Itna, eight unions of Mithamoin and eight unions of Nikli is 37.4 percent, 24.8 percent, 31.9 percent and 23.9 percent respectively whereas the literacy rate of Bangladesh is 71 percent.