Global Playground Has Built Three New Classrooms

Global Playground has contributed $37,000 to build three new classrooms for MATI Primary School in Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

Global Playground has contributed $37,000 to build three new classrooms for MATI Primary School in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Construction began in January 2020 in collaboration with the nonprofit organization MATI Bangladesh.

MATI Primary School, located in the village of Huzurikanda, hosts 170 students from preschool to fifth grade. The school was founded after the advocacy of women in the village, and seeks to equip children from poor backgrounds with the skills necessary to succeed in a formal education system.

MATI’s students emerge from largely agricultural backgrounds in more than ten surrounding villages. The school provides free lunch for students daily, and, unlike the next closest schools for children in the area, does not ask for tuition fees.

Two classrooms that were damaged after an earthquake in 2015 and several storms have been remodeled. The third classroom serves as a classroom for the sciences and creative studies and hosts classes in woodwork, agriculture, and biology.

The State of Education

While Bangladesh has made recent strides in improving education, increasing enrollment of primary school students to 97.9% in 2016, the quality of education remains a challenge. An assessment conducted by Save the Children and USAID found that 44% of students who complete the first grade cannot read, and 20% of students drop out before the fifth grade (1). 

With a population of 161 million people, Bangladesh represents both the eighth most populous country in the world and one of the most densely populated nations. Much of the population resides near bodies of water -- areas increasingly susceptible to erosion, floods, storms, and pollution (2).

The Mymensingh district where MATI Primary School is located lies near the Brahmaputra River, and the school has suffered damage from annual storms and monsoon rains from the Himalayas.

The new classrooms at MATI Primary School empower elementary-aged students that cannot afford to pay tuition fees to receive an education, and rebuild following the damage wrought to the school by natural disasters. The classes housed in the improved facility will meet the area’s demand for courses that provide practical knowledge in the sciences and creative arts.

1. “Education: Bangladesh”. USAID. (October 2017).

2. Trines, Stefan. “Education in Bangladesh”. World Education Services. (August 2019).

Cox’s Bazar, a beach in the southwestern part of Bangladesh, is the longest beach in Asia.