by Ro Maung Shwe
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
More than 1.14 million Rohingya refugees are confined to the world’s largest and most overcrowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. They fled successive waves of violence, persecution, and genocide in Myanmar in 1942, 1978, 1991–92, 2012, 2016–17, and again in 2024. Despite decades of displacement and repeated forced migrations, not a single large scale, safe, dignified, and voluntary repatriation has taken place.
The most recent displacement in 2024 unfolded amid intensified fighting between the Myanmar Junta and the Arakan Army. Rohingya civilians were once again systematically targeted, trapped between warring parties, and forced to flee. Today, they remain in prolonged limbo stateless, restricted, and deprived of the basic opportunities necessary for a dignified life.
Prolonged Displacement and Structural Restrictions
For decades, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have lived under severe movement restrictions. They have no formal access to employment, no legal work permits, and no recognized pathways to higher education. Entire generations are growing up in camps where dependency on humanitarian assistance is the only means of survival.
This protracted condition has created deep frustration, psychological distress, and growing insecurity, particularly among youth. Community resilience, once sustained through social networks and shared coping strategies, is steadily eroding under prolonged uncertainty.
A Growing Youth Population at Risk
According to UN agency data, between 50 and 52 percent of the Rohingya population is under the age of 18. This demographic reality presents both potential and risk. Without access to education, skills development, or livelihoods, a rapidly expanding youth population faces a future shaped by dependency, exploitation, and despair.
Young people stand at the center of this crisis. They are the largest segment of the population, yet the most constrained.
Education Gap and the Collapse of Learning Opportunities
Formal education opportunities in the camps remain extremely limited. Apart from NGO run learning centres, children have little access to structured education. Recently, many of these centres were shut down or suspended due to funding shortfalls, particularly following reductions in UNICEF supported programmes.
Even where learning centres continue to operate, education outcomes remain weak. Many children remain at the same grade level for years, studying the same curriculum repeatedly with limited resources and no recognized certification.
The promise of education exists in name, but progression is often stalled.
Community Led Schools: Hope Without Recognition
In response to these gaps, Rohingya educators have established community led schools offering instruction from Grade 1 to Grade 12, often following the Myanmar curriculum. These initiatives have enabled some students to progress more rapidly. Cases have been documented where students studying at Grade 10 in community schools remain at only Grade 4 in NGO learning centres.
Yet access to these schools is unequal. Families must pay monthly fees and purchase books, uniforms, and materials. Many cannot afford these costs, leaving large numbers of children excluded from education altogether.
Crucially, certificates issued by community led schools are not officially recognized by the Government of Bangladesh or UN agencies. Students who complete Grade 12 find their qualifications effectively unusable, with no pathway to higher education or skilled employment.
The effort is real. The outcome remains blocked.
Unrecognized Teachers and Lack of Professional Support
Approximately 40 percent of teachers in community led schools are reasonably qualified. However, most lack professional training, teaching materials, and institutional support. Many also work as volunteers or low paid staff in NGO learning centres, balancing multiple roles to survive.
The absence of recognition, oversight, and structured training frameworks leaves both teachers and students vulnerable, despite their commitment.
Madrassas and Hifz Khana: Essential but Unregulated
Religious learning centres, Madrassas and Hifz Khana, play a significant role in Rohingya society. As a predominantly Muslim community, Rohingya families place deep value on religious education.
However, rapid and unregulated expansion has raised concerns about quality, governance, and sustainability. Research indicates that in some camps, four to six Madrassas operate within a single camp, each enrolling only 50 to 100 students and staffed by 8 to 20 teachers.
Many institutions rely entirely on community donations. While founders often promise external donor support, some later depend on door to door fundraising by students or loud public fundraising events known as jalsa. In certain cases, leadership positions are filled based on family ties rather than qualifications, undermining educational standards.
The institutions are essential to community identity. Yet the lack of regulation creates structural weakness.
Community Proposal on Education: Recognition and Regulation
Community leaders, educators, and intellectuals are increasingly calling for reform. They advocate for official recognition of community led schools and Madrassas, supervision through a standardized board system, consolidation into fewer and better resourced institutions per camp, and the appointment and training of qualified teachers.
Such measures, they argue, could reduce financial burdens on families, improve educational quality, and ensure continuity even during funding crises.
Skills Training Without Livelihood Pathways
Since 2024, NGOs have expanded short term vocational training programmes for youth aged 18 to 30. These include caregiving, electricity, sewing, community health work, and agriculture. The courses typically last three months and are often certified by UNHCR.
While these programmes provide valuable skills, graduates are denied the opportunity to apply them. Legal and structural barriers prevent income generation inside or outside the camps. Training without employment pathways has resulted in frustration rather than empowerment.
Skills exist. Opportunity does not.
Social Consequences of Exclusion
The absence of education and livelihoods has severe social consequences. Child marriage increases when students see no future in education. Early marriage contributes to rapid population growth, family instability, and entrenched poverty.
Youth disengaged from education are increasingly vulnerable to crime, drug trafficking, gambling, and exploitation.
Recent reductions in WFP fresh food assistance have intensified these pressures. For many households, particularly those headed by widows, persons with disabilities, or elderly caregivers, fresh food items represented their only source of protein and nutrition. The cuts have deepened food insecurity, malnutrition, and psychological stress.
Economic hardship, early marriage, and confinement have also contributed to rising domestic violence and divorce. Young couples, unprepared for family life and unable to earn income, face constant stress, leading to conflict and separation.
Human Trafficking and Dangerous Sea Journeys
Desperation is pushing many Rohingya into the hands of traffickers. Educated and uneducated alike are taking dangerous risks.
In one recent case, a trained and educated Rohingya volunteer lost his NGO position in late 2025 due to funding cuts. With no alternative livelihood, he attempted the dangerous sea journey to Malaysia, leaving behind his wife and a three month old baby in the camp. His fate remains unknown.
Such stories are no longer rare.
A Path Forward: Livelihoods as Protection
Establishing regulated livelihood opportunities inside or near the camps could significantly reduce insecurity. Proposed initiatives include waste management and recycling facilities, soap, cooking oil, and water filtration factories, poultry and agriculture based enterprises, garments and small manufacturing units, and freelancing and digital work platforms supported by UN agencies.
Many of these goods are already consumed daily in the camps or supplied by aid agencies. Local production could reduce costs while generating employment.
Livelihoods are not merely economic solutions. They are protection mechanisms.
Conclusion
Access to education, livelihoods, and dignity is not charity. It is a human rights obligation.
Higher education reduces child marriage. Jobs reduce crime, trafficking, and domestic violence. Livelihoods restore hope and self reliance.
Without urgent policy shifts and sustained international cooperation, the Rohingya crisis will deepen not only as a humanitarian emergency, but as a long term human rights failure.
Behind the statistics and humanitarian reports, Rohingya families continue to endure silent suffering. Confined to overcrowded camps without access to education, livelihoods, or legal protection, many survive through quiet sacrifice, suppressed trauma, and painful choices.
The absence of opportunity has eroded hope, deepened insecurity, fractured families, and pushed some toward dangerous paths simply to survive. Until meaningful education and livelihood pathways are restored, the crisis will continue to unfold in the hidden corners of the camps, where suffering persists without visibility, voice, or relief.
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