The education of around 2,30,000 Rohingya children in Bangladesh is under threat due to an acute and deepening funding crisis, according to the United Nations International Children鈥檚 Emergency Fund.
Without immediate and sustained financial aid, support for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh is at risk, including critical foundational learning opportunities for children in the world鈥檚 largest Rohingya settlement in Bangladesh could be lost, said a UNICEF press release on Saturday.
In recent months, UNICEF has faced a significant decline in humanitarian funding for its operations in the Rohingya response, affecting the education of 83 per cent of school-age children in the camps, who are enrolled in UNICEF-supported learning centres.
Funding gaps have forced the UNICEF to take decisions, including suspending support for host community volunteer teachers working with Kindergarten to Class II learners with 1,179 host community volunteer teachers seeing their contracts ended with UNICEF麓s implementing partners by June 30, 2025, the release said.聽聽
Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, said, 鈥楾he UNICEF has been able to attract some other funding, but unfortunately there will be a delay in receiving this and thus UNICEF is forced to close learning facilities temporarily.鈥櫬�
Due to lack of funding, learning facilities will remain closed until at least the end of June 2025, in line with an extended Eid holiday period and reopening beyond that will depend entirely on the availability of new funds, said the release.聽
Early grade learners (Kindergarten to Grade 2) will no longer be taught English, science or social studies in the next academic year. Only core foundational subjects鈥攍iteracy (Rohingya), Burmese, mathematics, life skills and socio-emotional learning鈥攚ill be聽 prioritised.
No new textbooks or teacher guides will be procured for the 2025鈥�2026 academic year and the children will be asked to reuse materials from previous years, regardless of their condition.聽
End-of-year assessments and placement tests have been cancelled while volunteer teachers will not receive paid holidays and may only continue teaching on a voluntary basis until funding is restored.
