Bangladesh says it suspended ‘illegal coaching businesses’, not schools at Rohingya camps

The Bangladesh government has said the educational facilities suspended at Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar were “private coaching businesses”, not schools.

The clarification came in a foreign ministry statement on Thursday following a report that the authorities shuttered dozens of schools at the camps for operating without permission.

“COVID-19 induced suspensions and enjoying holidays on weekends or government holidays, suspension of unauthorised business ventures in the name of education should not be treated as effort to impede learning facilities for Rohingya children,” the foreign ministry said.

Ten thousand Rohingya refugee children living in the Cox’s Bazar camps will have enrolled in a UNICEF programme that teaches the national curriculum of their home country of Myanmar by the end of May, the UN agency for children said earlier this month.

Over 400,000 Rohingya children of school age live in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. About 300,000 of them are attending 3,400 learning centres organised by UNICEF and its partners.

Most of the children have been studying under the Learning Competency Framework Approach, an emergency informal learning system that caters primarily to children aged 4-14.

The new Myanmar Curriculum Pilot, which is expected to replace the emergency education system in the camps, is based on the national curriculum in their home country and aims to provide Rohingya refugees with a formal, standardised education. UNICEF said it hopes to provide schooling to older children who have been unable to access education.

But The New York Times later reported Bangladeshi authorities began a crackdown on schools set up by Rohingya community leaders, calling them illegal.

UNICEF enrols 10,000 Rohingya refugee children in Myanmar curriculum pilot

Bangladesh shutters dozens of schools set up by Rohingya in camps  

In response to the report, the government said it places “great importance on ensuring access to education for all especially for girls and in a similar vein, it is facilitating learning activities for the Rohingya children inside the camps”.

“However, it is of deep concern that disinformation is being propagated about the learning facilities for the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN)/Rohingya children when the Government of Bangladesh is working with the UN agencies to gradually bring learning facilities under Myanmar Curriculum, streamline the volunteer teacher’s engagement and adopting policies for their capacity building.

“Reports of closure of learning facilities, barring teachers or students to attend there are false and fabricated.”  

The statement also said the government discourages operation of any private coaching centres or Moktobs inside the camps where learning activities are conducted in exchange of money, does not necessarily follow the Myanmar Curriculum or is “even suspected to spread ideologies with ulterior motives”.

It alleged dropout rates in the “established learning centres” are increasing due to the “unexpected operation of those coaching centres”.

“Promotion of such coaching centres would turn learning into a business commodity.”

“As the Myanmar curriculum rolls out at different grades, efforts should continue to ensure a standard curriculum is taught to all students, and to ensure education is provided to Rohingya refugees free of charge and no disparity is created among FDMN children in the name of education.”