Nearly a decade after the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar contain one of the largest concentrations of stateless children in the world. The crisis is frequently discussed in terms of humanitarian aid, diplomatic negotiations, and repatriation politics. Yet another reality is unfolding quietly inside the bamboo classrooms scattered across the camps: an entire generation is growing up in an education system that exists without citizenship, without recognized credentials, and without a clear future.
The Rohingya education response has expanded significantly since the early days of the crisis. Learning centres operate across the camps, supported by international organizations and humanitarian agencies. Teachers—many of them Rohingya refugees themselves—deliver lessons in basic literacy, numeracy, and life skills. In recent years, new initiatives have introduced elements of the Myanmar national curriculum in an effort to prepare children for eventual repatriation.
But beneath these efforts lies a fundamental contradiction. Education usually functions as a pathway toward opportunity: access to higher learning, entry into labour markets, participation in public life. In the Rohingya camps, education operates in a space where these pathways remain blocked.
The result is a system that produces learning without belonging.
A Generation of Children in the Camps
Children form the majority of the Rohingya population in Bangladesh. International humanitarian organizations estimate that more than half of the nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees currently living in Bangladesh are children. Hundreds of thousands of them are of school age.
The scale of this demographic reality has shaped the humanitarian response. Education programs were introduced soon after the mass arrivals of 2017 as part of emergency assistance efforts. International agencies recognized that children in protracted displacement face particular vulnerabilities: loss of schooling, psychological trauma, exposure to exploitation, and increased risks of child labour and early marriage.
Over time, education became one of the largest sectors within the Rohingya humanitarian response. Thousands of learning centres were established across the camps. These centres provide structured daily instruction for children between the ages of roughly four and fourteen.
Yet the education offered in these settings does not resemble conventional schooling systems.
The Learning Centre Model
Instead of formal schools, the camps rely primarily on learning centres—small classroom structures that function as part of an emergency education system. According to humanitarian reporting, thousands of such centres operate throughout the camps, staffed by Rohingya and Bangladeshi teachers working together.
Learning centres were designed as temporary solutions. The curriculum focuses on basic competencies rather than formal grade progression. Classes typically include literacy, numeracy, life skills, and elements of social awareness.
This model emerged because Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh do not have access to the national education system. Bangladesh has not formally integrated Rohingya children into its public schools, largely due to concerns about permanent settlement and national policy commitments to eventual repatriation.
As a result, the humanitarian community developed a parallel education framework that operates outside national certification systems.
The intention was pragmatic: provide children with basic education while maintaining the temporary nature of displacement.
But as displacement continues year after year, the limitations of this model have become increasingly visible.
The Learning Competency Framework
One of the central tools used in camp education is the Learning Competency Framework and Approach (LCFA). Developed by humanitarian agencies, the LCFA defines learning benchmarks for Rohingya children within the camp environment.
The framework organizes instruction around competency levels rather than formal grades. Children progress through learning modules designed to build foundational skills.
Research examining the LCFA highlights its importance in maintaining access to education in emergency settings. At the same time, the framework underscores the constraints of the system.
Students who complete LCFA-based education do not receive formal academic certification recognized by national education systems. This means that the knowledge gained through camp schooling often cannot be translated into official educational credentials.
In effect, children learn but cannot convert that learning into recognized qualifications.
The Myanmar Curriculum Pilot
In 2021, Bangladesh and humanitarian agencies introduced a new initiative aimed at addressing some of these limitations. Known as the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot, the program allows Rohingya children to study elements of Myanmar’s national education curriculum inside the camps.
The pilot represents a significant shift. Instead of purely informal education, students now follow subjects such as Burmese language, mathematics, science, English, and social studies aligned with Myanmar’s educational framework.
The logic behind the initiative is clear. If repatriation eventually occurs, Rohingya students educated under the Myanmar curriculum may find it easier to reintegrate into schools inside Myanmar.
But the pilot also reveals the political constraints shaping education policy.
Bangladesh does not permit Rohingya refugees to enroll in its own national education system. Instead, the Myanmar curriculum prepares children for a future in a country where many of them have never lived and where conditions for safe return remain uncertain.
The curriculum thus reflects the central political assumption of the refugee response: Rohingya displacement is temporary, and education should support eventual return rather than long-term integration.
For many children in the camps, however, the future remains uncertain. Years have passed since the initial displacement, and large-scale repatriation has not occurred.
Children are studying for a future that may remain distant.
Funding Instability and School Closures
Even the limited education systems operating in the camps face constant instability.
Humanitarian education programs depend heavily on international funding. When funding declines, learning centres close. Teachers lose stipends. Children lose access to classrooms.
In recent years, funding shortfalls have forced the closure of thousands of learning centres. Humanitarian organizations warned that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children could lose access to education as programs were scaled back.
These disruptions have serious consequences. Education programs in refugee settings serve not only academic functions but also protective ones. When schools close, children are more likely to enter labour markets prematurely, experience exploitation, or face pressure toward early marriage.
Investigations by international news organizations have documented how education interruptions can increase vulnerability among refugee youth.
School closures do not simply interrupt learning. They reshape childhood itself.
Barriers Beyond the Classroom
Even when education programs function effectively, Rohingya students face structural barriers that limit the impact of their schooling.
One major barrier is the absence of recognized certification. Without official credentials, students who complete camp education programs have limited access to higher education opportunities.
Another barrier is restricted mobility. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face movement restrictions that limit their ability to travel outside camps. These restrictions complicate access to advanced training, universities, or employment opportunities.
Legal status is another factor. Because Rohingya refugees are stateless and lack formal citizenship recognition, their pathways into labour markets remain extremely limited.
These constraints create a disconnect between education and opportunity.
Students may acquire knowledge and skills, but the social and legal systems surrounding them do not allow those skills to translate into economic mobility.
Adolescence in Limbo
The consequences of this disconnect become particularly visible during adolescence.
Young Rohingya students who complete basic education in learning centres often find themselves with few options for further progression. Opportunities for vocational training or secondary education remain limited. Employment opportunities are scarce.
This stage of life—when young people typically begin to imagine careers, higher education, or independent futures—becomes instead a period of uncertainty.
Humanitarian organizations have warned that the lack of educational progression pathways can contribute to frustration among refugee youth.
When aspirations are raised through education but opportunities remain closed, social tensions can increase.
In some contexts, such conditions have led to the growth of informal economies, recruitment into illicit networks, or increased social instability.
Education alone cannot prevent such outcomes if broader structural barriers remain unchanged.
Education as Protection
Despite these challenges, education remains one of the most important protective tools available in refugee settings.
Humanitarian agencies consistently emphasize that schooling helps reduce risks of child labour, trafficking, and early marriage. Classrooms provide safe spaces where children can rebuild routines and social networks after trauma.
Education programs also support mental health and resilience. Structured learning environments can help children process the disruptions of displacement and maintain a sense of normalcy.
For girls in particular, access to education can significantly reduce the likelihood of early marriage and improve long-term well-being.
In this sense, even imperfect education systems play a vital role in protecting children.
Yet protection alone cannot substitute for long-term opportunity.
The Statelessness Question
At the heart of the Rohingya education crisis lies the question of statelessness.
Education systems normally operate within national frameworks. Students graduate from recognized institutions, receive credentials, and enter labour markets within defined political communities.
Rohingya students exist outside this structure. They study within humanitarian systems rather than national ones. Their credentials often lack formal recognition. Their citizenship status remains unresolved.
This condition creates a paradox.
Children are being educated within systems that do not grant them membership in the political communities where they reside or where they may eventually return.
Learning occurs, but belonging remains uncertain.
A Lost Generation?
Humanitarian workers sometimes warn of the risk of a “lost generation” among Rohingya youth. The phrase reflects concern that prolonged displacement combined with limited educational opportunities could undermine long-term prospects for an entire cohort of children.
Whether this outcome materializes depends on multiple factors: the stability of education programs, the expansion of secondary and vocational opportunities, the trajectory of repatriation negotiations, and broader political developments affecting Rohingya citizenship.
What is clear is that the stakes are high.
Education is not simply a humanitarian service. It shapes the future of communities.
For Rohingya children growing up in Cox’s Bazar, the future remains deeply uncertain.
Conclusion
The Rohingya education system in Bangladesh reflects both humanitarian commitment and political constraint. Learning centres, competency frameworks, and curriculum pilots demonstrate significant effort by international organizations and local partners to provide schooling in extremely difficult circumstances.
At the same time, the system operates within structural limits created by statelessness and displacement.
Children learn in classrooms that are not part of national education systems. They follow curricula designed for a country they cannot yet return to. They complete lessons that may not lead to recognized qualifications.
Education without citizenship produces a generation educated in limbo.
The challenge facing policymakers, humanitarian actors, and regional governments is not only to expand access to schooling but also to address the political conditions that prevent education from translating into opportunity.
Without such change, the classrooms of Cox’s Bazar may continue to produce knowledge, resilience, and hope.
But they will struggle to produce futures.
References
- UNICEF. Rohingya Crisis Overview and Education Statistics.
- UNHCR. Education Support for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh.
- UNICEF. Myanmar Curriculum Pilot for Rohingya Refugee Children.
- Academic research on Learning Competency Framework and Approach (LCFA).
- Save the Children. Education Disruptions in Rohingya Camps Due to Funding Shortfalls.
- Reuters. Reporting on school closures and risks of child marriage among Rohingya refugees.
- International Rescue Committee. Education access challenges among Rohingya children.
