Minimum standards developed by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies note that refugees’ “future opportunities and what is needed to allow them to continue their education in host or home communities after an emergency need to be considered” when deciding on the language of instruction. Nonetheless, “in situations of extended displacement, opportunities should be provided for learners to learn the language of the host community or country. This enables them to function within the host community and to continue to access education and opportunities.”*6 The informal education program being rolled out in the refugee camps is subject to the governmental ban on any instruction in the Bengali language, or Bangla, to Rohingya children. Asked about the policy by a journalist, the former head of Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission said, “Our policy is to provide informal education. Why do the Rohingya need to learn Bangla? Their language is Burmese .... They are here temporarily. The government is negotiating their repatriation strategy.”*°7 In October 2017, the governmental National Task Force on Rohingya issues, chaired by the foreign ministry, issued a decision that the only permitted languages of instruction for Rohingya refugees are Burmese and English.168 In a 2018 request to the Global Partnership for Education for an $8.3 million education grant for Rohingya children, which was later approved, Bangladesh emphasized the “written instructions from the National Task Force on Undocumented Myanmar Nationals and written feedback from MoPME [the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education] not to use Bangla language in the teaching learning process for Rohingya children and also considering the education system and arrangement in Rakhine state from where they came from”.*69 The government reiterated the ban on Bengali language instruction in May 2019, in its Guidelines for Informal Education Programming (GIEP) policy, which refers to the National Task Force’s instructions “to 166 Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies, “Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery,” 2012, p. 81. 167 Sunaina Kumar, “How Rohingya refugee children are torn between languages,” Refugees Deeply, April 1, 2019, https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2019/04/01/how-rohingya-refugee-children-are-torn-between-languages (accessed September 17, 2019). 168 Human Rights Watch interview with senior humanitarian official, Cox’s Bazar, February 17, 2019. 169 Government of 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] November 5, 2018, p. 12, https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/20180813_gpe_proposal_rohingya_final.pdf (accessed July 17, 2019). “ARE WE HUMAN?” 48