Children’s Collection of Aid Harms Access to Education Many children and learning center instructors said that attendance dropped off badly due to children needing to be present in order to receive humanitarian aid distributions in the camps. Rohingya children told Human Rights Watch that they were often unable to attend learning centers on days when they needed to collect humanitarian aid supplies in the refugee camps. Mohammad Ayas, 20, a Rohingya teacher at a learning center, said that “usually we get more than 75 percent attendance every day. But when the kids have to go to collect the rations or aid, they don’t come to the classes. Everyone needs to collect their own ration, and the Rohingyas get aid per-head, so we miss the students on those days.”25 “Whenever there is a relief [humanitarian aid] distribution, the kids don’t attend schools,” an instructor at another learning center said. “In a week, there are two or three days when some children don’t come to the LCs because they go to collect their relief supplies.”226 Other Obstacles to Education Gender-Based Violence and Limited Access to Education for Girls Bangladesh and humanitarian agencies should counter the significant pressures adolescent girls face not to attend school, which are due in part to the targeting of women and girls in the camps for sexual violence, and the failure to protect them or provide services for victims, and specific targeting of female teachers by a Rohingya armed group.227 Girls are vulnerable to sexual and domestic violence in the camps, leading some parents to tell their daughters to stop going to learning centers due to concerns for their safety.228 The Myanmar army uSed rape as a weapon of war, including against children.229 225 Human Rights Watch interview with Mohamad Ayas, Cox’s Bazar, February 5, 2019. 226 Human Rights Watch interview with Abdus Shukur, Cox’s Bazar, February 6, 2019. 227 At younger ages, the number of boys and girls enrolled in learning centers is roughly equal: about 41,000 girls and the same number of boys ages 4-5, and 85,000 girls ages 6-14 compared to 88,000 boys, as of January 2019. Few children older than 10 or 11 years attend the learning centers. Cox’s Bazar 5W Data - Education Sector, “190122_edsector_5w,” Excel sheet, “Summary” tab, https://data.humdata.org/dataset/cox-s-bazar-5w-data-education-sector (accessed August 1, 2019). 228 5019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Emergency, January-December, p. 35. 229 See e.g. Human Rights Watch, “All of My Body Was Pain”: Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma, November 16, 2017. “ARE WE HUMAN?” 60

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