Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from previous waves of persecution in 1978 and 1991-92. Bangladeshi authorities coerced most of these Rohingya to return to Myanmar — including by restricting their access to food, leading thousands to starve to death — but registered a fraction of those who remained as refugees. Their children, born in Bangladesh, are also “registered” refugees, and live in camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).4 As UNHCR reported in 2007, Refugee children are prohibited from accessing formal education within or outside the camps. Education is therefore provided informally ... The teachers ... have received some basic training ... Classes run for two hours a day ... Bengali language instruction is not provided ... most schools lacked adequate furniture ... books and other learning materials ... separate latrines for girls and boys... [and] facilities for children to wash their hands .... Secondary education is not permitted. Bangladesh eventually permitted UNHCR to introduce a non-formal, English version of the Bangladeshi school curriculum for registered refugee children, but even today, these Rohingya boys and girls, who were born and lived their entire lives in Bangladesh, are only permitted to study up to class 8, and are barred from attending schools outside the camps. Some Rohingya children managed to enroll in secondary schools by passing as Bangladeshi nationals, but in early 2019, the Bangladesh government ordered their expulsion, after an investigation by one of the country’s intelligence agencies. For Bangladeshi students, the Cox’s Bazar district has the country’s highest student- teacher ratios and drop-out rates. Some local primary schools in host communities were initially used to store and distribute humanitarian aid after the August 2017 influx; classes closed for months, infrastructure was damaged, and students likely dropped out. Some “para-teachers” who had been working with Bangladeshi schools have taken unrelated jobs with humanitarian NGOs, which offer higher salaries. International donors are funding school refurbishments in host communities and are supporting improving education for Bangladeshi children. 4 Only Rohingya who arrived before mid-1992, and their children, have been registered as refugees. Bangladesh has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and does not recognize the vast majority of Rohingya as refugees, but refers to them as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals.” 7 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2019