Among the Rohingya refugees who took shelter in Bangladesh to escape persecution by Myanmar forces in the country's Rakhine state, there are around 100,000 children who are of school-going age.
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) and Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), who have made the headcount, say that these children, between the ages of four and 14, need to be sent to schools right away.
AM Sakil Faizullah, communications manager at Unicef Bangladesh, said there were 240,000 refugees from zero to 18 years of age. Of them, more than 100,000 are already at the school-going age.
According to Unicef, some 80,000 Rohingya entered Bangladesh in October last year, while the ongoing influx since August 24, has seen another 400,000 refugees enter.
The refugees have taken shelter in the camps at Kutupalong, Ukhiya, Balukhali and Leda areas of Cox's Bazar. Almost 60% of them are children.
Agencies and NGOs including Unicef, ISCG, Save the Children, Brac and Community Development Centre (Codec) have been working for Rohingya children here.
The organisations have launched learning centres, childcare and pre-schooling at the permanent and temporary refugee camps. The children are being supplied tools for drawing and indoor games.
An estimate of ISCG reads that the NGO opened 173 learning centres, including four temporary ones, at the Kutupalong, Ukhiya, Balukhali and Leda refugee camps.
The NGO will provide pre-schooling service to 12,934 Rohingya children. It will provide same service with 413 children at four temporary camps.
Some 35 children used to get the service in each permanent refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, but a decision has been taken to raise the number of such children to 50 at the permanent camps.
Moreover, ISCG will have childcare facility for 449 children.
Faizullah said the Unicef launched nine learning centres at the permanent refugee camps after 78,000 Rohingya people had entered Bangladesh in October and November last year.
Apart from the learning centres, 33 mobile centres were erected which are already engaged to provide service to the Rohingya children in different camps, he said.
A number of programmes have been undertaken to help facilitate education, sports and mental growth of the children at the camps, he added.
When asked about the education for the children, the Unicef official said: “The Rohingya children were being taught in their native language (Burmese) as per the order from Bangladesh government. Since they came to Bangladesh through a harrowing experience, they were left traumatised. Hence, they were later given counselling by a specialist instead of being provided with education.”
“Afterwards, the children were taught drawing and a number of measures were taken up for their recreation, including sports. We started providing the services to them several months ago.”
“Until they become psychologically fit, they are not being provided education,” he further added.
Unicef serves at least 4,500 children in nine permanent refugee camps.
Regarding Unicef's plan about the fresh Rohingya influx, Faizullah said: “We are thinking about providing services to all children. But it is not possible for Unicef to handle the matter alone. So we have engaged many NGOs including Brac and Codec.
“The influx brought six times more Rohingya to Bangladesh recently, of whom 60% are children. It will be tough to provide service to so many children. We need to work by engaging other NGOs but everything depends on funds. We can expedite our work as soon as we get the necessary funds.”
Humayun Kabir, organiser of Unicef's Kutupalong learning centre, said Bangla and English are taught alongside Burmese in the schools.
“There are some teachers there who know Burmese. But the arrival of more children will cause a shortage of teachers,” he said.This article was first published on Bangla Tribune
Thursday, June 04, 2026
