A recent UNICEF advocacy alert report shows that 2,167 learning centres facilitated education to about 192,000 Rohingya Refugee children. These centres are conveyed by UNICEF and its partners in Bangladesh. The report further calls for urgent investment in education and skills development opportunities in and around the vast camps where most of the Rohingya refugees dwell.
However, the following report also emphasised the need for an additional 640 learning centres. “For the Rohingya children and youth now in Bangladesh, mere survival is not enough, it is absolutely critical that they are provided with the quality learning and skills development that they need to guarantee their long-term future,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore.
The report also pronounces that 97% of the youngsters aged between 15 to 18 years are not attending any type of educational facility because of inadequate opportunities for learning. These mass of adolescents can fall prey to drug dealers or lured to travel aboard with rickety boats by human traffickers.
UNICEF is supporting the development of youth centres and adolescent clubs in which life skills, psychosocial support, basic literacy and numeracy and vocational skills are provided as part of a comprehensive package. Till July 2019, nearly 70 such facilities were operational but far more are needed.
“The hopes of a generation of children and adolescents are at stake. We cannot afford to fail them,” said Fore.
