education.”74 In fact, the government contributes no funding, infrastructure, or other
resources to Rohingya children’s education. Instead, it imposes a highly restrictive policy
that limits what humanitarian agencies, with international funding, can do. As this chapter
describes, government documents, UN reports, statements by officials, UN reports, notes
of coordination meetings of humanitarian groups working in the education sector, and
interviews with humanitarian and Bangladesh officials show that the government of
Bangladesh, in line with decades-old policies on refugee education, prohibits
humanitarians from providing Rohingya children with:
e
formal, certified education
e
secondary-school-level education
e
access to Bangladeshi schools outside the camps
e
instruction in the Bengali language
e
permanent school buildings.
Ban on Formal, Certified Education
The government of Bangladesh’s responsibility for providing education to Rohingya
refugees lies with the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the Ministry of Education
(which is responsible for secondary, tertiary and vocational education), the Ministry of
Disaster Management and Relief, and the Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner
(RRRC), among other bodies. A coordinating group in Dhaka is meant to bring UN agencies
and NGOs together with government bodies on education issues, but the government
rarely participates.75 In fact, refugee education policy is determined by the National Task
Force on Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals, chaired by the Foreign Secretary, and
comprised of 29 agencies and ministries.76
74 Bangladesh, Leaving No One Behind: Education for girls and boys of Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s
Bazar district of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Funding Proposal to the Global Partnership for Education, [uploaded on November
5, 2018], p. 5, https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/20180813_gpe_proposal_rohingya_final.pdf (accessed
July 17, 2019).
75 The coordinating body, called the Education Local Consultative Group (ELCG), is co-chaired by the Education Ministry of
Public and Mass Education and USAID, but as of September 2018 the education ministry was “seldom present to chair the
meetings, nor have other government bodies participated in recent years.” Global Partnership for Education, Grants and
Performance Committee Meeting, September 17, 2018, GPC/2018/09 DOC 02, Annex 2, p. 4.
76 Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Statement by Hon’ble State Minister for Foreign Affairs as Chief Guest of the
Session on ‘Inclusive Humanitarian Actions in Disasters and Protracted Crisis’ at the 2nd International Conference on
Disability & Disaster Risk Management,” May 17, 2018, https://mofa.gov.bd/site/page/977a3C¢75-c579-47e5-92694fed860ds5b49 (accessed July 24, 2019); Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
Their Families, Twenty-sixth session, Replies of Bangladesh to the list of issues, March 17, 2017.
“ARE WE HUMAN?”
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