Education is one of the basic rights of people which helps to eliminate poverty in this competitive world. About two-third inhabitants of Cox’s Bazar refugee camps are Rohingya children who are passing their childhood without any formal education. According to UNICEF, only about 23 percent of Rohingya children aged 4 to 14 years have access to any kind of education in Bangladesh.
Rohingya Khobor (RK) team asked a Rohingya Teacher, Mr Kamal about what he feels about the ratio and he replied, “Yes, education is our basic right, but we are being denied in camps. We are very upset for this. International community should work strongly with Bangladesh government to provide door-to-door education in camps.”
On Thursday, an editorial published by Dr. Azeem Ibrahim on Arab Times states, “the lack of resources and infrastructure in the already cramped settlement, as well as cultural and language barriers are major reasons why these children are not properly educated.”
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim also added that, “The international community will need to support educational initiatives for Rohingya children in these refugee camps.”
He further notes that, “These initiatives should be designed and carried out in close consultation with the Rohingya community itself to ensure that they are culturally appropriate, relevant to the needs of the community and responsive to the challenges facing the Rohingya people.”
RK team asked another refugee from Camp-5, Dil Nuwas, regarding the learning centers which were razed down by fire and she replied, “Some of them are already built, some are not. There is nothing sufficient for the Rohingya. We need many help from international community. There is no formal education for children in camps.”
At present, Rohingya children are getting little to minor education through Temporary Learning Centre (TLC). TLC focuses on three basic subjects- English, Math, and Burmese. Merely two teachers are appointed for each TLC to conduct the entire schooling program. One teacher is designated from Rohingya community and the other from local host community.
