By Camp Correspondent
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — June 14, 2025 |
Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown have called for urgent international action to address the deepening education crisis among Rohingya refugee children.
In a discussion shared via Yunus’s social media channels, the two global figures focused on two pressing priorities: Bangladesh’s economic recovery and the educational needs of over half a million Rohingya children currently growing up without formal schooling.
“We must give Rohingya children hope and the chance to learn,” wrote Yunus. “Our government is committed to ensuring they are not forgotten.”
Since the mass displacement of the Rohingya following the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar, nearly one million refugees have taken shelter in Cox’s Bazar—the world’s largest refugee settlement. Among them, an estimated 500,000 children have been denied access to a formal education system, placing an entire generation at risk of being permanently left behind.
A Curriculum Without a Classroom
In 2023, Bangladesh and UNICEF jointly launched the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP) to introduce structured learning aligned with the national curriculum of Myanmar, which the Rohingya identify with. However, the rollout has been uneven.
Lack of funding, classroom space, trained teachers, and restrictions on building permanent educational facilities have left most children unreached. Many continue to rely on informal learning centers that provide only limited literacy and numeracy instruction, without certification or long-term prospects.
Brown: “Education is a Lifeline”
Gordon Brown, now serving as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, praised Yunus’s leadership during Bangladesh’s ongoing political transition and emphasized the urgent need for inclusive development.
“Education is not a luxury—it is a lifeline,” Brown said. “Without it, the risk of child labor, trafficking, early marriage, and radicalization increases. We must act now, before it’s too late.”
Brown announced plans to visit Bangladesh soon to assess the situation in the camps firsthand and explore ways to scale up education initiatives. He called on donor countries, UN agencies, and humanitarian organizations to prioritize the educational needs of Rohingya children.
A Race Against Time
For years, aid groups have warned of the long-term consequences of failing to educate Rohingya youth. In the absence of schools, children are often pushed into exploitative labor or forced into early marriages. Without a path to learning, they remain locked in cycles of poverty and exclusion—with no tools to rebuild their future.
“This is not only a humanitarian obligation—it is a matter of regional stability and security,” said one education specialist working in Cox’s Bazar. “An uneducated generation in these camps means a future crisis in the making.”
As Bangladesh works to stabilize its post-crisis governance and manage a fragile economy, Yunus has vowed to ensure that marginalized communities—especially the Rohingya—are not excluded from national and global development goals.
The renewed focus on education, driven by this high-level dialogue, brings fresh attention to a crisis that too often fades from the headlines. But unless commitments turn into classrooms, the children of Cox’s Bazar will continue to wait.
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