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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 10
Publication Date: October 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.810.11139. Parveen, S. S. (2021). Prospects of School Social Work in Haor Areas of Bangladesh. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal,
8(10). 501-512.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Prospects of School Social Work in Haor Areas of Bangladesh
Syeda Sultana Parveen
Department of Social Work
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
This study employs qualitative research methods to explore the performance of
school students in reading motivation, sincerity, and achievement and the
perceived role of a school social worker in Tanguar Haor inhabitants of rural
Sunamganj in Bangladesh. Findings of the study suggest that the stakeholders in
rural education in haor areas are keen to see the students’ achievements in reading,
motivation, and academic performance but unaware of how to improve. This paper
argues that social workers have a significant role to play in rural areas, particularly
in remote places like haor areas, to enhance students’ performances and academic
achievements in the school as well as to improve the quality of education services
in those areas.
Keywords: Student achievement, reading motivation, dropout problem, school social
work, haor area.
INTRODUCTION
This study focuses on schooling arrangements for the surrounding inhabitants of the Tanguar
Haor1 which is one of the largest haors with a diverse ecosystem located in the northeast of
Bangladesh. It is a significant freshwater wetland of the country due to its geographic location,
hydro-ecological structure, and biodiversity (BHWDB, 2012). The region stretches over 90.6
thousand hectares of an area covering two Upazillas (Dharmapasha and Tahirpur) of
Sunamganj district (Ahmed, Ashikuzzaman, and Mahmud, 2017; Sarif, et al., 2016). The haor
regions have various socioeconomic opportunities including agricultural resources, fisheries,
livestock, and tourism. However, these areas are distinct from other parts of Bangladesh and
associated with various problems such as flash floods, lack of proper sanitation, scarcity of
drinking water, inadequate road network, degradation of ecosystem, illiteracy, poverty and
inadequate health facilities. Flash flood is the biggest problem that vehemently interrupts the
lives of haor people (Raju, 2013). During the rainy season, flash flood disrupt communication
systems as most of the areas goes underwater (Sarif et al., 2016) during that time. Haor people
remain out of work for almost half of the year that forces them to live in poverty (Kazal et al.,
2010). They can only cultivate two crops a year: Rabi crop and Boro paddy (CARE, 2016).
Research shows that habitats of haor regions in Bangladesh constitute 73% poor households of
1 Haor is a vast freshwater wetland in the northeastern part of Bangladesh including the Sylhet division (consisting four
districts: Sylhet, Moulovibazar, Sunamganj and Habiganj) and its border districts such as Kishoreganj, Netrokona and
Brahmanbaria. The haor basin is a lowland bounded by hilly ranges of the Indian states of Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur
and Tripura. During the monsoon, haors receive surface runoff water from the hilly regions through rivers and channels
to become a vast sea-like waterbody where villages look small islands. However, in the winter, most part of a haor dry
up to become green paddy fields. There are as many 373 haors in Bangladesh covering the area of 860 thousand hectares.
Tanguar Haor is the largest haor in the region (Alam and Hussain, 2012).
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 10, October-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
which 44% are extremely poor (Rabby et al., 2011). All of the above-mentioned difficulties are
interlinked that impose a significant impact on the education of the haor population
(Chowdhury, 2005). The majority of the students in haor areas are bounded by poverty and low
income and thus they are substandard in academic performance and achievements compared
to the students from other parts of the country. Lower-income communities assume that
schooling is a wastage of time and it is a process that has no power to meet their expectation
and needs. In addition to poor infrastructure, lack of resources, and distance, the educational
system suffers from a lack of proper communication between teachers, students and parents.
Moreover, children living in poverty often come to school with fewer enriching life experiences
and less motivation for academic achievement than affluent children. The children of haor areas
live in a very different environment from children of mainstream society. They spend less time
in school, read no extra-curricular books such as magazines, and newspapers and possess less
or no access to computer and internet facilities. Parents of haor children usually have less
education and less interest to encourage their children for academic performance. Receiving
less guidance from the family as well as from the community these children are less likely to
have a dream or view themselves in a good position in the future. However, proper guidance
and nurture can increase the possibility of educational success in haor community. To bring a
change, the school social work could be instrumental for motivating and upgrading teacher- student engagement and bringing parental satisfaction. School social work is a holistic
approach to dealing with students, families, school personnel, and the communities in contrast
with the traditional teacher-students functions we see in the school. In this context, this study
aims to investigate the behaviour of school-going children and find out the prospects of school
social work in haor areas. The specific objectives were: to explore the problems faced by
children at schools in the haor area; to investigate the causes of students irregularity and
absenteeism in the school; to find out the initiatives taken by the school authorities to solve
students problems, and to identify the potential roles of the social worker in solving the
problems.
SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK: CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES
School social work is a dominant field of the social work profession. It concentrates on the
problems faced by children during school life (Constable, 2009; NASW, 2002). School social
workers aim to fulfil the needs of the students as well as address the challenges they face in
their schools (Allen-Meares, 1994). The focus of school social work is not only the problems
that occurred in the school environment, rather it focuses on other psycho-social issues that
might influence the schooling of a student. This practice particularly dealt with the children
when unexpected behaviour develops among students or reluctant to interact with other
classmates and play with them, irregular and inattentive in schools, slow learners, feel free to
be a silent and lonely or juvenile delinquent. School social work is a dominant field of the social
work profession. It concentrates on the problems faced by the children during school life
(Constable, 2009; NASW, 2002).
Child development primarily depends on two factors family and the school (Constable, 2009).
School social workers deal with knowledge regarding family and school environment to
facilitate child education (Newsome, et al, 2008). They follow the person-in-environment
perspective (Dane & Simon, 1991; Hare, 2004). In school social work normally social work
knowledge is translated into practice for the wellbeing of the students by minimizing problems
they face in the schools or outside the schools. School Social Work (SSW) is being practised in
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Parveen, S. S. (2021). Prospects of School Social Work in Haor Areas of Bangladesh. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(10). 501-512.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.810.11139
most of the first world countries such as the UK and the USA. In the USA, it has a long history of
using the SSW approach in schools for more than a century (AACAP, 2014). Social work
promotes human rights and advocates for vulnerable groups especially children who are
amongst the most vulnerable to human rights violations in the present world (Sosa & Nuckolls,
2018). School social workers concentrate on educational rights, social justice, and educational
disparities (Frey et al., 2017). As part of a commitment to human rights and social justice, school
social workers advocate for the rights of students against discrimination and reduced
opportunities (AASW, 2015). It intervenes to mitigate the problems of the school-going
students who face anxiety, distress, inequality, discrimination, injustice, and exclusion. Client’s
assessment, internal and external coordination, consultation, counselling, client support,
facilitating behaviour modification, and service linkages are required to deal with the issues
associated with schooling. Since haor children show low performance in schools, social workers
can hold a set of duties at the primary and secondary school to assist students to maximize their
learning outcomes.
PROSPECTS OF SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK IN HAOR AREAS OF BANGLADESH
Residents in haor areas are submerged with various problems such as ecological,
environmental, social, cultural, and economic problems that constantly hinder the development
of these areas. To overcome these problems, they require to work with fulfilling basic human
rights particularly, access to education. The national development of a country is mostly
dependent on the advancement and achievement of the education of the student (Maekae,
2013). National Education Policy argues that education is perceived as a process of learning
and social behaviour that contributes to maintaining social order (MoE, 2010). Socio-economic
and environmental conditions in the haor region largely influence primary and secondary level
schooling. Currently, the literacy rate in the haor area is 38% while the net enrollment rate is
82%. In the haor area, the dropout rate in primary schools is 44% on average which is
comparatively higher than the national average of 40%. The attendance rate in primary and
secondary school is 74% and 37% respectively that are also lower than the national average.
Only 60% of students can uplift their transition from primary to secondary level (BHWDB,
2012). Distanced location of the schools, unawareness of the guardians, insufficient training for
the teachers, high student-teacher ratio, and crowded classroom are also responsible for the
poor performance of school children in education (Sommers, 2011; BLAST & IID, 2012). Along
with other factors, traditional socio-cultural practices and patterns of livelihoods largely affect
the educational status of the haor people. Children very often become engaged with life- sustaining activities that open the way of dropping out of school. Zulikowski et al. (2016) point
out that school dropout is the result of complex interacting factor that includes environmental
conditions and events, gender, poverty and opportunity costs. It is also seen that lack of
attention and motivation towards school and learning also works as the predictor of school
failure (Freeman and Simonsen, 2015).
Several studies revealed that students learning problem is also related to school dropout like
specific learning disabilities (Johnson and Johnson, 1999), attention difficulties (Raaijmakers,
et al. 2008), certain personality traits (Migali and Zuccheli, 2017) and negative life events
(Mann, et al., 2014). Drop out of students cannot be happened for any single reason, rather
student, school, and family commitment are involved collectively (Archambault et al. 2009).
The educational level and income of parents influence the early school leaving of children
(Dalton et al., 2009). Jordan et al. (1994; 1996) explained two types of factors that influence the