The most extreme journeys to school are a powerful reminder that something many of us take for granted can demand extraordinary determination from children elsewhere in the world.
For most students, getting to school means a short walk, a bus ride or being dropped off by a parent. For others, it can mean crossing rivers, climbing mountains, balancing on makeshift bridges or spending hours on the road simply to reach a classroom.
We originally collected these remarkable photographs because they tell an education story without needing much explanation. Years later, they are still difficult to look at without asking the same question: how far would you go for the chance to learn?
At Verbalists and PRODIREKT, we work with students who travel internationally to learn languages, experience another culture or continue their education abroad. Their journeys are exciting and chosen. The journeys below are very different, but they are perhaps the clearest reminder of something that connects them all: education can change where a young person is able to go next.
The photographs that follow capture some of the extraordinary journeys children make simply to reach school.
The most remote school in the world – Gulu, China
5-hour journey into the mountains on a narrow path to probably the most remote school in the world, Gulu, China.
School in Zhang Jiawan village, Southern China
Children as young as six from the small Atuler village in the Sichuan province of China have to scale a rock face using rickety ladders to get home from school. Because the trip took about two hours each way, children only traveled home every two weeks. After photographs and video reports of the dangerous commute went viral in 2016, local authorities built a sturdier steel ladder with handrails, reducing travel time.
Kids traveling to a boarding school through the Himalayas
Kids traveling to a boarding school through the Himalayas, Zanskar, Indian Himalayas.
Pupils crossing a damaged suspension bridge in Lebak, Indonesia
Pupils crossing a damaged suspension bridge, Lebak, Indonesia.
After the story spread, Indonesia’s largest steel producer, PT Krakatau Steel, built a new bridge, so that the children could cross the river safely.
Pupils canoeing to a school in Riau, Indonesia
Pupils canoeing to school, Riau, Indonesia. Image credits – Nico Fredia
Riding auto rickshaw to a school in Beldanga, India
Riding a tuktuk (auto rickshaw) to a school in Beldanga, India. Image credits: Siddharth Srivastava / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
School in Pangururan, Indonesia
Children traveling on the roof of a wooden boat in Pangururan, Indonesia. Image credits – Muhammad Buchari
Rural kids on their way to school, India
Schoolchildren riding a horse cart back from a school in India. Photo: McKay Savage / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Students on a makeshift bamboo raft
Students in rural Indonesia frequently rely on makeshift bamboo rafts to cross rivers and reservoirs to reach school when local bridges are damaged or missing.
Pupils walking on tightrope
About 20 brave students from Batu Busuk village in Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia, balance on a tightrope 30 feet above a rushing river every single day just to get to class. Once they cross the bridge, they have a further seven-miles through the forest to their school in the town of Padang. Image credits – Panjalu Images/Barcroft Media
Elementary school students crossing a river on inflated tire tubes in Rizal province
Elementary school students crossing a river on inflated tire tubes, Rizal Province, Philippines. Image credits – Bullit Marquez/AP
Kids flying 800m on a steel cable 400m above the Rio Negro River
Kids flying 800m on a steel cable 400m above the Rio Negro River, Colombia.
A very different kind of journey for education
These photographs are dramatic, but the story behind them is really about access. A school can exist, teachers can be waiting and children can desperately want to learn, yet geography, poverty, conflict or infrastructure can still put education out of reach. UNESCO now estimates that around 273 million children and young people worldwide are out of school, which makes these images far more than a collection of extraordinary photographs.
At Verbalists, the word journey usually has a very different meaning. We see students taking their first trip abroad, finding their way around a new city, struggling through their first conversation in another language and eventually discovering that they can manage far more independently than they expected.
The children in these photographs remind us that simply being able to begin that journey is already an opportunity worth valuing.
Image credits and copyright notice: Photographs in this article are credited to their identified photographers and/or original sources wherever available. They are presented in the context of educational commentary on access to education around the world. Copyright remains with the respective copyright holders. If you are a rights holder and believe an image has been incorrectly credited or should not appear here, please contact us at info@verbalistseducation.com so that we can review the matter promptly.
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