When we think of the school, a classroom with desks, blackboard and bell comes to mind. But not everywhere in the world, education takes place like this: there are schools that challenge extreme environmental conditions, isolated communities or educational models out of the ordinary, showing how to learn can take surprising and creative forms. In some areas of the Bangladesh The lessons take place by boat, to remedy the problem of floods that make the usability of school buildings impossible; in Bhutanin the remote village of Lunana, children do not know the model of western civilization, but live a school based on non -formal education projects; in Tibetuntil 2017, some children and teenagers attended a school at over 5,000 meters in height – then moved more downstream – which has now become a nursery; in Indiaon the other hand, there is a school with an international scope that is based on the Montessorian pedagogy, which has over 60,000 pupils, and in Denmark There is a high school without classes with a fixed place or benches, where the walls that divide the spaces are of glass.
1. The boat school in Bangladesh
In the North-Western Bangladeshin the period of the monsoons, the floods are very frequent: the movements and the access to the services for the community, in the period of the rains, are very complex, if not impossible. When rivers overflow, school services also become impractical, because the buildings are forced to close. Precisely for this reason, in the last 20 years, thanks to the intuition of the architect Mohammed Rezwannumerous have been built Boat schoolswhich perform the function of both school bus which moves along the river to recover the students, who “floating room“That, after loading the pupils on board, stops to make lessons.
The project of Floating School is managed by the non -profit organization Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangsthawith the aim of making the region’s waterways not an obstacle, but a way to education, aggregation and concrete resolution of problems, with particular attention also to female emancipation. In fact, only schools do not arise on the rivers, but also libraries, health clinics, playgrounds and training centers Where the WiFi connection is also available, at the service of over 150,000 people.
2. The most remote school in the world in Bhutan
The remote village of Lunana – which literally means “the dark valley” – is located in Bhutan, on the slopes of the Himalaya on the border with Tibet. Reaching it is not easy, not surprisingly it has been called “The village at the end of the world” schoolwhich became famous thanks to the film “Lunana, the village at the end of the world”Oscar candidate in 2002, the story of a teacher who is sent to teach the Lunana Primary School. The story narrated by the film is the result of fantasy, but the filming were made precisely in Lunana and the conditions narrated are true: many children have never gone beyond the borders of the mountains, They have no idea what technology is And they have never seen a means of transport.
But the condition of isolation is compensated by an approach to“non -formal” educationstrongly based on the resources of the territory. Takur S. Powdyel, Minister of Education in Bhutan from 2008 to 2013, based his educational program on concepts of nature and freedom, inspired by the principle of “Gross internal happiness”an indicator coined by the government of the country that establishes that the happiness of the inhabitants is a fundamental parameter to measure the well -being of the nation.
3. The school at over 5,000 meters high in China
A phumachangangg, in Chinain the Autonomous Region of Tibet, a School located 5,022 meters high. The students were about a hundred, mainly coming from the nomadic communities of the territory, and there were six teachers. In the thirty years of activity, The highest school in the world – also recognized by the Guinness Book of Records – has encountered many difficulties: impervious weather conditions, periods of large frosts, difficulties in supplies and therefore scarcity of food, as well as the problems due to rarefied air. The set of all these factors made learning almost impossible and led, in 2017, to the closure of the school as an education center, and to its movement to the most accessible city of Nagarze. At the old school headquarters, a nursery To welcome the little ones, and the educational purposes of the space have therefore been maintained.
4. The largest school in the world is in India, with over 60,000 students
There City Montessori School In Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh in India, on August 10, 2023 it counted 61,345 students, located in the various citizens colleges, and received the largest primacy of the world from the Guinness World Record in the world. Founded in 1959 by Dr. Jagdish Gandhi and Dr. Bharti Gandhi, his wife, at the beginning it counted only 5 pupils: today there are thousands more, from three years until the end of high schools.
The only school in the world to have received the UNESCO for peace prizereceived in 2002, City Montessori School chose as a motto “Jai Jagat” – “Hail the World” literally “greets the world”, in contrast to the greeting “Hail India” which was promoted after Indian independence, precisely to symbolize its opening to brotherhood and to overcome the boundaries thanks to education.
The school declares that, “The education of the 21st century must be wider and more bold. It must cultivate a good human being, with values and a wide range of capacity. Therefore, the education of the CMS recognizes the three fundamental realities of human life: material, human and divine. It is based on four constitutive elements: universal values, global understanding, service in the world and excellence in all things”.
5. The school without classes or Banks in Copenhagen
A single, enormous space, without dividers or closed classrooms, 12,000 meters paintings which welcome up to 1,200 students aged 16 to 19: this is theØTrestad Gymnasiumin the very first suburbs of Copenhagen, in Denmark. The architecture of the structure – designed by the 3XN study – reflects what you want to promote on an educational level: sharing, opening, team work, problem solving, relationship with others.
The pedagogical project was developed by the Municipality of Copenhagen itself, and took shape with the circular spaces which become flexible learning areas in each floor. There are no closed classes, and not even benches where you have to be “fixed”: you sit in shared environments, and the walls of the most traditional rooms are still in glass. Libraries, shelves and other furniture accessories are transportable, so that the environment can always be reorganized according to the needs.
