They are not as lucky as other students of many schools in the country as a section of people have turned their playground into a fish enclosure obstructing the discharge of rainwater into the nearby canal. 

The students of Shahzadpur East Government Primary School are being deprived of plying games or sports or arranging cultural progammes on their playground due to stagnant water.

Talking to the UNB correspondent during a recent visit to the school, some students and local people said rainwater used to get drained out from the field within 1-2 hours of rain through an adjacent canal but now that way-out for rainwater has been blocked and it remains waterlogged always.

Students of the school said now they cannot play during their tiffin break or sing the national anthem together as the playground remains waterlogged all the time.

There are four teachers and 187 students in the school, and its classes are held on the first floor of the school building while the ground floor is used for meeting with guardians.

Now the meetings of guardians cannot be arranged on the ground floor for the stagnant water, locals alleged.

As the schoolground is 3-feet lower than the road it gets waterlogged during monsoon, causing immense sufferings to its students and teachers, and guardians.

Some influential people have started cultivating fish blocking the path of rainwater discharge ignoring the children’s need and inconveniences of teachers and guardians, the locals complained.

Once the schoolground was used for many purposes, including holding cultural programmes or namaz-e-janzas of deceased, but now all have been stopped, they said.

They demanded the authorities concerned take immediate steps to drain out the stagnant water from schoolground and make it useful to school children.

Yasmin Begum, headteacher of the school, said Aziz, a relative of school committee president Dulalur Rahman, is involved in fish farming in the schoolground.

Abdul Aziz, Upazila Education Officer, said a probe committee has been formed in this regard and action will be taken once the probe report is available.