Rajshahi, July 31 (V7N) — A high school in Rajshahi’s Bagha upazila faces destruction for the fourth time due to severe erosion by the Padma River, endangering the education of hundreds of students and the future of the institution itself.

Chakrajapur High School, established in 1978, was first relocated in 1998 after river erosion destroyed its original site. The school was forced to move again in 2012 and then in 2018 due to similar threats. Now, just a few years later, the school is once again on the verge of being swallowed by the river.

According to school officials, the situation has become critical. The school’s playground and four tin-roofed classrooms have already been consumed by the river. Teachers, students, and local residents are scrambling to protect what remains of the school by manually filling and placing sandbags along the riverbank.

Golam Mostafa, the school’s assistant head teacher, said, “We’ve lost the field and several classrooms. The permanent building could collapse into the river at any moment. Our students are trying to save the school themselves, but they are too distracted and frightened to concentrate on their studies.”

Head teacher Abdus Sattar reported that the school currently serves 537 students. “We’ve already dismantled and removed the four tin classrooms. But we’re now in danger of losing the three-room concrete building and four more tin structures. Time is running out.”

Former chairman of Chakrajapur Union, Azizul Azam, described the broader devastation in the area: “The villages of Chakrajapur, Kalidaskhali, and Lakshminagar have effectively disappeared. These names now exist only on paper, as their lands have been fully engulfed by the Padma.”

He added that more than 100 homes and hundreds of bighas of agricultural land—including mango, guava, and jujube orchards, as well as vegetable fields—have been washed away.

The community is now pleading for immediate government intervention to build sustainable river protection infrastructure. Without urgent action, not only will the school be lost, but the remaining community infrastructure may soon follow.

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