• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, January 30, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Dont Miss

Rohingya Children Could be ‘Lost Generation,’ UNICEF Warns

Bryan Bowman by Bryan Bowman
08/30/18
in Dont Miss, Refugees
a Rohingya refugee

Bangladesh handed a list to Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Photo: AFP

81
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

More than a year after fleeing extreme violence in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children have little opportunity for education and face uncertain futures, a report issued by UNICEF last week warns.

Some 500,000 Rohingya refugee children are living in crowded, rudimentary camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh near the border with Myanmar. While large-scale international aid efforts have ensured the camps have basic services, educational opportunities remain scant.

“If we don’t make the investment in education now, we face the very real danger of seeing a ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya children,” UNICEF’s Bangladesh Representative Edouard Beigbeder said in the report.

Initial studies by UNICEF show that “the vast majority” of Rohingya children under 14 are at a preschool level or – at best – the first step of primary.

Although about 1,200 temporary learning centers are operating in the camps, only about 140,000 children are enrolled. There is no agreed curriculum and classrooms are often overcrowded and lack basic water and sanitation facilities.

Joe English, a spokesperson for UNICEF, told The Globe Post that the learning centers offer a “non-formal education,” and that greater resources are urgently needed.

The Rohingya are an ethnic minority group historically concentrated in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. In August of 2017, the Myanmar military carried out operations in Rakhine, committing mass killings and alleged war crimes. Nearly one million Rohingyas who survived the offensive remain in camps in Bangladesh.

On Monday, the United Nations issued a report accusing the military of committing atrocities and calling for military leaders to face genocide charges.  

Without better education opportunities, Beigbeder said he fears the children will face irreparable setbacks.

“[They] will be incapable of contributing to their society whenever they are able to return to Myanmar,” he said.

These fears are also held by Caroline Gluck, a public information officer for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees who works with Rohingyas on the ground in Bangladesh.

“A lack of responsive education programs perpetuates a cycle of lifetime exclusion of individuals and, at worst, a generation of communities,” she said.

Because of limited resources, priority was given to educating children under the age of 14, the report said. Because of this, many adolescent Rohingyas have no access to education at all.

One such refugee highlighted in UNICEF’s report was Mohamed Faisal, a 13-year-old Rohingya who lost his left arm after being shot while running through the forest escaping Myanmar.

“I see the schools here where the younger children go, but there is nothing for boys like me,” Faisal told UNICEF. “I feel very unhappy that I am unable to study here.”

“Half of the world’s refugees are children. Of the children who are of school age, more than half are not getting an education”

–@RefugeesChief says it’s time to turn the tide and help refugee children go #BackToSchool https://t.co/lL0t3v5A4L pic.twitter.com/FU0uy6lxn8

— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) August 29, 2018

UNICEF Chief of Education Bibek Sharma Poudyal said in the report that additional funding and resources are necessary to improve the quality of education in the camps and to expand opportunities to adolescents.

The organization has appealed for $28 million in funding for Rohingya education in 2018, English said. So far, they have received just 52 percent of it.

According to English, UNICEF has also called on authorities in Myanmar, where more than half a million Rohingya remain, to allow Rohingya children to attend local schools at all levels.

As of July, over three thousand Rohingya and Bangladeshi teachers have been recruited to work in the learning centers, but more are needed in order to provide an education to all Rohingyas, Poudyal said.

An additional obstacle to educating the refugee children is the fact that many of them have experienced psychological trauma.

“Colleagues working in the camps report children suffering nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety attacks and other manifestations of the trauma they have been through,” English said.

All teachers that work with UNHCR receive psychosocial training, and additional psychological resources are available for those in need. UNICEF has established child and adolescent groups within the camps.

“UNICEF is working to provide children with a safe space to learn, play, heal and just be children again,” English said. “These centers play an important part in bringing normalcy to children’s lives that were so brutally uprooted.”

Quarter of Rohingya Refugee Children Acutely Malnourished

Share81Tweet
Bryan Bowman

Bryan Bowman

Email Bryan at bryan.bowman@theglobepost.com or follow him on Twitter @TGPBryanBowman

Related Posts

Ukraine war
Opinion

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

by Tazreena Sajjad
April 20, 2022
Ukraine refugees
Refugees

Nearly 3.7 Million People Flee Ukraine, UN Says

by Staff Writer
March 24, 2022
migrants
Refugees

Six Migrants Drown Off Tunisia, 30 Missing

by Staff Writer
January 27, 2022
Poland border wall
Refugees

Poland Begins Work on New EU-Belarus Border Wall

by Staff Writer
January 25, 2022
Humanitarian worker places a face mask on a child refugee during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opinion

As COVID-19 Lingers, Wealthy Nations Must Not Abandon Migrants

by Maria DeJesus
December 21, 2021
Afghan refugees
Refugees

Europe Asylum Hits Five-Year High as More Afghans Flee

by Staff Writer
December 3, 2021
Next Post
The Boston Globe newspaper

Police Arrest California Man Over Threats Against Boston Globe Newspaper

Migrants on a boat at sea

Riots, Hunger Strikes Break Out in Libyan Refugee Detention Centers

Recommended

Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023
Pfizer logo and vaccines

Pfizer to Sell More Drugs at Cost to Poor Nations

January 18, 2023
Rescuers inspect the wreckage at the site of a Yeti Airlines plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal

At Least 67 Killed in Nepal Plane Crash

January 16, 2023

Opinion

George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

August 17, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post