More than half of all refugees living in the Rohingya settlements in Cox’s Bazar, south-eastern Bangladesh are children under the age of 18. Currently, approximately 36% of Rohingya children aged 3-14, and 91% of young people still lack access to any learning opportunities in the overcrowded refugee sites.
Many Rohingya children also lacked schooling in Myanmar. They and their parents are eager to have more and better quality education opportunities which can give them the skills to help rebuild their communities in the future.
Students at the settlement receive just a few hours of education per day, learning English, Burmese, life skills, and maths, with learning centres operating three shifts per day. However, the centres have no fixed curriculum. Going forward, there is no secondary education available to students.
“Young people require, and desire access to meaningful education that offers clear pathways to progression and is officially recognized by state agencies,” says James Onyango, UNHCR’s education officer in Cox’s Bazar.
“People will need skills and recognized qualifications to help them develop their communities. We’re only too aware of the dangers of a lost generation of youth,” he adds.
The outcomes of a recent learning assessment indicated that majority of students are only able to participate in the first three grades of basic education. As a result, organizations working in the education field are now grouping learners together according to their assessed levels rather than their age groups, to facilitate more structured learning.
However, the education programme does not address the needs of older learners who have never been to school, or those whose education was interrupted at upper grades when they fled Myanmar. There is no standard, accredited curriculum, no defined pathway to recognized qualifications and few opportunities to study beyond the age of 14.
Improving education is a priority for UNHCR, Onyango says, noting that the Refugee Agency opened a first teacher training facility for the settlement last October.
“In collaboration with other humanitarian agencies, we’re also looking at strengthening the capacity of teachers and improving the overall quality of educational services,” he explains. “We’ve also been piloting some literacy learning sessions for adolescent boys and girls, we nonetheless remain deeply conscious that this is inadequate.”
Original source: UNHCR
Published on 06 June 2019
