United States and other foreign donors’ cutbacks in humanitarian aid have worsened the already existing education crisis for 437,000 school-age children in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch has said.
On June 3, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) suspended thousands of “learning centres” run by nongovernmental organizations in the refugee camps, due to a lack of funding, the New York City-based group said in a statement on Thursday.
“The only education currently in the Bangladesh refugee camps is at schools established by the Rohingya community without outside support or official recognition,” it mentioned, urging Bangladesh’s interim government to urgently lift restrictions on education for Rohingya refugees, such as lack of accreditation, and donors to support community-led schools.
The government should also permit Rohingya children to enrol in schools outside the camps, HRW added.
“The US and other donor governments are abandoning education for Rohingya children after the previous Bangladesh government long blocked it,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at HRW.
“The interim Bangladesh government should uphold everyone’s right to education, while donors should support the Rohingya community’s efforts to prevent a lost generation of students.”
HRW said it spoke in April and May with 39 Rohingya refugee students, parents and teachers in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, 22 on Bhasan Char island, which also houses refugees, and 14 international and Bangladeshi teachers, humanitarian workers, and education experts.
“Most Rohingya fled persecution and wartime atrocities in Myanmar, where they are effectively denied citizenship and other rights.”
HRW continued: “In 2024, the US government provided $300 million to respond to the Rohingya refugee crisis, over half of the total amount received by humanitarian agencies. But as of June 2025, the administration of President Donald Trump had slashed aid to $12 million. By April, the humanitarian education sector in Bangladesh, which funds the learning centres, had secured only about $22 million of its $72 million annual budget and was significantly reducing expenditures.
“Out of a target of 437,000 school-age children in the camps, about 304,000 were enrolled in the learning centres, now closed. Unicef aimed to reopen the learning centres it funded for classes 6 and above by June 29 and encouraged nongovernmental organizations NGOs to reopen lower classes if they could find other sources of funding.
“Rohingya refugees said that community-led schools offered higher-quality education than the learning centres. They hired teachers who had completed most of their upper secondary schooling, and classes had multiple teachers who specialized in different subjects.
“The community-led schools, unsupported by government or private donor funding, charge parents monthly tuition fees ranging from around $0.50 for class 1 up to $5 for class 12, a barrier to enrollment for some families.”
“Parents want to send kids to community-led schools but cannot afford the fees, so the only options are [learning centres]. But when they see that the kids are not learning, they send the child to work,” HRW quoted one refugee as saying.
“There are over 100 [community-led] schools [in the Cox’s Bazar camps],” a principal told HRW. “But no humanitarian [groups] are supporting us, because the Bangladesh authorities do not recognize us.”
According to the rights group, teachers said the lack of certification, which affected learning centres as well as community-led schools, also undermined students’ hopes to build a better future upon eventual return to Myanmar.
“If you made it to grade 12, but without a certificate, you will have to start all over from the beginning,” a community-school teacher said.
HRW noted that the lack of education opportunities had also increased children’s vulnerability to spiralling violence by armed groups and criminal gangs in the Cox’s Bazar camps, including abductions, recruitment and trafficking.
Abductions of children were so frequent in late 2024 that many parents stopped allowing their children to leave their shelters to go to school, refugees said.
Protection monitors reported 51 child abductions in the first quarter of 2025, HRW mentioned.
“With the learning centres shut down due to the funding crisis, whether or not funding is found to re-open them, the interim Bangladesh government and donors should recognize and fund community-led schools to increase their capacity,” HRW said.
“The interim Bangladesh government should recognize community-led schools, and the United Nations and aid agencies should include Rohingya educators in decision-making and leadership roles. Recognition of Rohingya-led schools could encourage donor support and help achieve better instruction for more students.
“Bangladesh should follow the example of countries, including Türkiye, that have accredited and certified education for refugee children, including refugee-led schools teaching the curricula of their countries of origin.
“Under international human rights law, all children have the right to quality education, without discrimination, regardless of their residency or migration status. International standards for refugee education recommend that refugees meaningfully participate in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of programs.”
“The previous Bangladesh government for years blocked education for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children because they were refugees,” Van Esveld said. “The interim government should reject old policies and support education without discrimination for all children.”
