Bangladesh has refused to allow Rohingya refugees formal education for decades. Currently, there are roughly 8,000 school-age Rohingya refugees, who were born in Bangladesh to parents who arrived before mid-1992, who are registered as refugees, and live in camps separate from the post-August 2017 arrivals. The government did not allow these “registered” Rohingya children to study a curriculum until 2007, when it permitted instructors, supported by UNHCR, to teach a non-formal version of the Bangladeshi curriculum, translated into English.87 These Rohingya children receive a “certificate of participation or attendance” but their education is not certified or accredited and they cannot sit for national examinations.88 The schools for children in “registered” refugee camps only run through class 8, while secondary school for Bangladeshi children goes to class 10 and higher secondary school to class 12, but “there are no formal pathways from this into the formal system.”89 Because no certified education is available to Rohingya children, and no secondary-level education is provided in the camps, some have learned Bengali, acquired Bangladeshi identification documents, and enrolled in public schools outside the camps by passing as Bangladeshi nationals. In early 2019, the Bangladesh government ordered the expulsion of Rohingya refugee children who had managed to acquire Bangladeshi identification documents in order to enroll in public and private schools in the Teknaf and Ukhiya subdistricts of Cox’s Bazar by passing as Bangladeshi nationals.9° The children were identified by an investigation by intelligence agencies, expelled from schools, and had no alternative access to education.” A senior Bangladeshi education official in Cox’s Bazar, who expressed sympathy for the plight of Rohingya children, made an attempt to justify Bangladesh’s ban on formal education: 86 Human Rights Watch, “Bangladesh: Rohingya Refugee Students Expelled,” April 1, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/01/bangladesh-rohingya-refugee-students-expelled. 87 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,” p. 9, [uploaded on] November 5, 2018, https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/20180813_gpe_proposal_rohingya_final.pdf (accessed July 17, 2019). 88 Cox’s Bazar Education Sector, “Joint Education Needs Assessment: Rohingya Refugee in Cox’s Bazar,” June 2018, p. 27, https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/documents/files/cxb_jena_assessme nt_report-180607.pdf (accessed June 2, 2019). 89 Ibid. 9° Human Rights Watch, “Bangladesh: Rohingya Refugee Students Expelled,” April 1, 2019. 9* Ibid. 33 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2019