20 of the Most Unbelievable and Perilous Journeys Students Endure to Reach School

#10. Gulu, China

Brave students travel for five hours into the steep mountains to reach the nearest school. The path is mostly one-foot-wide.

#9. Pangururan, Indonesia

In Pangururan, Indonesia, students travel via a wooden boat. But they have to stay on the roof because it can get very crowded inside.

#8. Province of Rizal, Philippines

These students rely on an inflated tire tube to cross the river and get to school.

#7. Sumatra, Indonesia

Students walk on a tightrope across a river in Padang. They don’t have a harness to keep them safe or gloves to protect their small hands.

#6. Zhang Jiawan Village, Southern China

Students boldly climb a series of unsecured wooden ladders in the remote mountains of Badagong.

#5. Pili, China

Students set out on a 125-mile-journey through the mountains of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to reach a boarding school in Pili. It takes them two days to complete the voyage, which requires crossing a 650ft chain bridge, four single-plank bridges, and wading through four icy rivers.

#. Lebak, Indonesia

Children cross this dilapidated suspension bridge in Lebak. However, when their story was publicized to the rest of the world, PT Krakatau Steel, Indonesia’s largest steel manufacturer, built a new bridge to help the students cross the river safely.

#3. Java, Indonesia

This conduit, which separates Suro Village and Plempungan Village in Java, wasn’t built for humans to walk on. But students either walk or ride a bicycle over this aqueduct as a shortcut instead of walking more than six kilometers just to reach school.

#2. Colombia

Believe it. Students have to glide on an 800m steel cable, which is 400m above the Rio Negro River.

#1. Jerusalem

In 2010, Palestinian protesters threw rocks at Israeli troops during an encounter in Shuafat, a refugee camp near Jerusalem. Still, this innocent girl calmly walked towards her school, nonchalant of the chaos that surrounded her.

Children shouldn’t have to climb mountains, swim across lakes, or dodge rocks and bullets just to reach school and have themselves educated. No child deserves to face those kinds of dangers in the first place. I just hope this article serves as a wake-up call not only to the children who take their education for granted but to the governments as well. It’s high time they do something about these, don’t you agree?