In Deora village of Akkelpur upazila in Joypurhat, a temple-based educational institution has become a classroom for 30 young children from low-income families.
Since 2025, Mukta Rani Roy has been teaching children between the ages of four and six at the institution, where she spends around two-and-a-half hours each day guiding them through their first lessons.
For the children, the school offers an early learning environment close to their homes and communities, an opportunity that they would otherwise never get.
Many come from families with limited access to formal educational opportunities, making the temple-based institution a local place where they can begin their education in a structured setting.
Mukta teaches the children basic reading, writing and numbers, while also engaging them in other activities designed to build foundational skills during their early years of learning.
With 30 students gathered for lessons, the classroom is a modest but important part of village life.
The children learn together, gradually becoming familiar with letters, numbers and the basic skills that form the foundation of their education.
Since beginning her work there in 2025, Mukta has continued to teach the children at a stage when their first experiences of learning are taking shape.
The school also reflects a broader challenge in rural education: for young children in villages, access to early learning can depend heavily on what is available within their immediate community.
Where formal educational opportunities are limited or less accessible, small local institutions can become important spaces for children to develop the basic skills they need before moving on to more formal stages of education.
It also highlights the importance of ensuring that children in rural areas have accessible opportunities for early education, regardless of where they live or their families’ economic circumstances.
For Mukta, the daily routine centres on helping the children learn the basics.
For the students, those two-and-a-half hours provide a regular space to read, write, count and take part in early learning activities.
In Deora, the temple-based school has thus become more than a place for lessons. It is where 30 children taking their first steps into a classroom on their journey towards becoming educated.
