most of the time we don’t get water,” Ayas said. “Some children ask for water, and if there
is none, they go somewhere else [to get a drink] and then don’t come back.”27
Due to the lack of space in the crowded camps, humanitarian groups envision creating
“clusters” of four to six learning centers each, in which children “will be grouped according
to competency level,” as well as increasing “mobile learning and other outreach services”
and tutors who teach in their own shelters.2*8 They have also set up 530 “mobile learning
centers” and 750 “home-based learning centers” in refugees’ own shelters.219
Lack of School Feeding Programs
School feeding programs are often rolled out in humanitarian responses to emergencies in
order increase school attendance, learning outcomes, and improve children’s health.22°
However, school feeding programs have not been implemented consistently in the Cox’s
Bazar camps. UNICEF reported in 2018 that “fortified biscuits are not distributed in all
[learning] centres and became a
criterion for families to enrol their children in the
centres.”22 The problem had not yet been resolved by February 2019, as Rohingya teachers
and children in the camps told Human Rights Watch some centers offered children
nutritional biscuits, but others still did not.222 Children were especially eager to attend
moktabs, because “they provide free food and sometimes clothing,” a 21-year-old
Bangladeshi instructor at a learning center in the camps noted.223 Another learning center
teacher said the parents of three boys in his class withdrew them and put them ina
moktab: “there, the kids can get free food and accommodation along with religious
education. | couldn’t talk the parents out of it.”224
217 Human Rights Watch interview with Mohamad Ayas, Cox’s Bazar, February 5, 2019.
218 5019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, January-December, p. 36.
219 9019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Emergency, January-December, p. 35.
220 UNICEF, “Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls,” ED/GEMR/MRT/2018/P1/12, 2018, pp. 2427.
221 UNICEF, Evaluation of UNICEF’s Response to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh, Vol. 2, Annexes, November 2018,
p. 24, https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/UNICEF-Rohingya_Response_Evaluation_VOLUME_II-2018-003.
pdf
(accessed August 1, 2019).
222 Human Rights Watch observations, learning centers in the camps and a primary school in host community, Cox’s Bazar,
February 5, 9, 12, 2019.
223 Human Rights Watch interview with Shabnur Akhter, Cox’s Bazar, February 6, 2019.
224 Human Rights Watch interview with Arafa, Rohingya instructor at learning center in camp 11, Cox’s Bazar, February 8,
2019,
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2019