"The Rangamati Hill District gave me 20 sets (of class one textbooks) each for 60 to 70 students", he told this correspondent recently.

Jakob is a member of Farua Union Parishad in Belaichhari upazila.

About 900 children of tribal communities in Raingkhyong reserve forest area there attend four schools. "But we can not give books to all of them", he lamented.

Assistance from government agencies do not reach the non-registered schools in the frontier area, about 100 kms from the district headquarter, he said.

He narrated the villagers' efforts to make their children educated, as government agencies hardly cared for them.

"We set up the four schools a decade ago on our own initiative with the help of army and Christian missionaries".

Initially there were two teachers at each school, but it is a one-man show now.

Villagers fed the teachers by rotation while the army and Christian missionaries working there provided Tk 1000 as their salary.

They army stopped the financial assistance in December last year. "They (army) told us they do not have adequate funds to contribute", Jakob said.

Bortholi Non-government Primary School, Pukurpara Non-government Primary School, Prongapara Non-government Primary School and Charging Para Non-government Primary School cover 19 villages there, inhabited by about 700 families of Pangkhua, Murong, Marma, Tanchangya and Tripura tribes.

Teachers do not want to stay there as they are poorly paid, he said.

When contacted, an official at RHDC said assistance can not be reached there as the area is very remote.