On a fog-filled morning on Loktak Lake, a line of small boats drifts towards a hut anchored to a floating island. Children climb out one by one, balancing school bags and excitement as they step onto a classroom that moves gently with the water. For families who live on the lake’s phumdis(floating vegetation islands), this little school is the closest thing to stable ground.
This is how education continues in the middle of Manipur’s largest freshwater lake — held together by community, care, and a belief that learning should reach every child.
Inside a classroom that floats
The Loktak Floating Elementary School of Manipur was built in 2017 to meet the needs of the fishing communities who live on Loktak’s shifting phumdis. At Langolsabi Leikai in Champu Khangpok, about 50 km from Imphal, it became India’s first indigenously built floating elementary school.
The school sits on one of the thicker phumdis and is constructed from local materials such as bamboo and thatch — simple, sustainable and native to the lake’s ecosystem.
The school is constructed from local materials like bamboo and thatch.
Photograph: (World Architecture Org)
Even with its simple form, the school was planned with the future in mind. Solar power, computers, and internet connectivity were part of the original design, with room for about 25 students and two community teachers.
Over the years, the floating school has become a lifeline. It offers classes up to class 3 and brings education to families who cannot easily send their children to mainland schools.
Today, the school teaches classes up to Class 3 and often becomes the only accessible classroom for children whose families cannot send them to mainland schools. It currently runs two to three days a week, from 8 am to 12 noon, and draws around 20–30 students depending on the season.
Staying afloat against all the odds
Running a school on water means bracing for a new challenge every day. One morning, the lake is calm, the next, thick phumdi blocks every boat route. Weather can strand families without warning, and the school’s fragile structure needs constant care.
The gaps are real: no official recognition, limited facilities and sudden isolation when vegetation closes in. Classes can halt in an instant.
What never falters is the community. Parents paddle through uncertain weather, fishermen’s unions step in, and NGOs offer steady support. Their resolve is the reason this floating classroom keeps going.
How help reached the classroom in time
When crises deepen, support arrives in humane forms. Between August and October 2025, the Ramakrishna Mission in Imphal stepped in with whiteboards, study materials, flooring mats and books after an emergency cut off supplies to the village.
Education that moves with the lake, but anchors young futures.
Photograph: (World Architecture Org)
The mission’s assistance also included follow-up visits to assess ongoing needs, underscoring how partnerships between local groups and civil society can keep small, vital projects alive.
The floating school at Loktak is more than a novelty; it is proof that education can, and should, adapt to local realities. It shows how communities invent solutions when mainstream systems lag — and how thoughtful collaborations can sustain them.
The school still faces structural gaps and policy hurdles, but every child who climbs into that floating classroom is living proof that learning always finds a way.
