Community-led Education in Rohingya Camps
We Must Prevent a Lost Generation
Since arriving to Bangladesh after the August 2017 crisis that forced them to flee their native Myanmar, Rohingya refugees have attempted to rebuild a semblance of normalcy in the squalid camps of Cox’s Bazar District. By 2019, a measure of stability has been achieved, with humanitarian agencies meeting the minimum survival needs of the 700,000 new refugees for food, shelter, water, and basic health care services. In contrast to the improvements in these sectors, refugees’ education needs remain largely unmet. The Government of Bangladesh restricts formal schooling for refugee children and youth; the lack of education has become a major source of concern and despair for refugees. In response, numerous refugee-led networks of community teachers have formed in an attempt to fill the gap in formal education.
These teachers, many of whom arrived in Bangladesh with significant prior teaching experience, represent a pool of human resources dedicated to improving camp education. They could be engaged by humanitarian agencies working in the education sector to benefit the overall education situation for refugees.