Changing mindsets: Education for Rohingya girls in Bangladesh

This story was written in collaboration with UNICEF Bangladesh.

Every school day, Rubaida walks with 12-year-old Ismat to the Chayabithi Learning Center in the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar. It’s thanks to women like her that Ismat can continue to attend the learning center and enjoy classes in science, Burmese language, history and math.

Rubaida is one of 100 Rohingya community volunteers in the camp who helps to make sure that Rohingya girls can learn, especially as they get older. “When girls become adolescents, they often stop coming to school,” she says. “And those who are coming to school are not allowed to go alone. That’s why I am helping.”

On turning 12, Rohingya girls face restrictions on their movement and social engagement in public, one of their biggest education barriers. This is part of practicing “purdah”: as part of cultural norms and religious beliefs that a girl, when she reaches adolescence, should be taking the role of the caregiver and stay at home until she gets married.

The Rohingya camp is located at the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, a coastal city in the southeast of Bangladesh, only a few kilometers from the border with Myanmar. Currently, about 1 million Rohingyas have found refuge in the camp; more than half are children. It’s the biggest settlement of forcibly displaced people in the world.

Of the over 340,629 children and youth currently enrolled in the camp’s various learning facilities and host community schools, 49 percent are girls. However, the enrollment rate for girls age 11–18 years is low. Indeed, the dropout rate for girls increases sharply and gender disparities grow; at secondary level only 24 percent of learners are girls.

Changing mindsets for Rohingya girls’ education

GPE has been supporting Bangladesh with UNICEF Bangladesh as the Grant Agent since 2018 to provide equitable and quality learning in the Rohingya camp as well as the surrounding host communities of Cox’s Bazar.

A first GPE grant of US$8.3 million, which was allocated from an education sector program implementation grant, ensured that 76,000 children had access to education opportunities between 2018 and 2022.

In early 2023, Bangladesh started implementing another grant from GPE of almost US$11 million to further improve the education situation in Cox’s Bazar, targeting 56,000 children in the Rohingya camp and over 6,825 Out of School Adolescents (50 per cent girls), in Skill Learning Centers/ local Enterprises reaching some, and training of 136 trainers and craft instructors and 1,024 Master Craft Persons in the host community.

Making sure that adolescent girls from the Rohingya community can complete primary level education and successfully transition to secondary level classes is a main concern. Changing behaviors and mindsets of parents and caregivers to embrace girls’ education is central to secure a better future for the Rohingya community.

Community members like Rubaida, who are selected by parents, caregivers, elders and teachers, are key to this approach. These volunteers – usually older women who have the trust of their communities and enjoy a high social standing among their peers – act as chaperones to adolescent girls, and remain with them throughout the whole day as they learn.

The volunteers also pay attention to girls’ dropping out. “I try to explain to the families that when girls study, they will gain experience and be able to pursue higher studies,” says Rubaida. “I also ask them if they face any problems in sending their girls to the learning center.”

The involvement of community volunteers like Rubaida has increased the trust in girls’ education among the Rohingya families and many feel more confident with their adolescent daughters in the learning centers. “If they don’t study, they can’t do anything in any place. They won’t get to work anywhere,” says Zafar Alam, Ismat’s father.

Building a foundation for future learning

The rollout of the Myanmar curriculum in the Rohingya camp is a milestone for the education of all children in the camp, including those beyond the GPE-funded program. Prior to this, the curriculum in the camp was an informal competency-based curriculum developed by the sector.

In December 2021, with permission from the government of Bangladesh, the Myanmar curriculum was piloted for 10,000 learners in grades 6 to 9. This implementation of the curriculum has since been expanded to include grades kindergarten to grade 10.

As of August 2023, the Myanmar curriculum reached about 262,493 children in the Rohingya camps.

The curriculum allows children to build on any existing knowledge. Moreover, it has an outlook toward a formal recognition of their education.

The move to the formal Myanmar curriculum also meant a shift in how education is organized in the camps and it necessitated more learning spaces. Providing sufficient space for children in the camp to learn is a priority for UNICEF.

Recruiting and training teachers for quality education

The successful rollout of the curriculum depends on the availability of well-trained and supported teachers. However, the recruitment of teachers for the Myanmar curriculum rollout remains a challenge, especially from grade 6, as there is a serious shortage of individuals among the Rohingyas with secondary-level knowledge of mathematics and science.

To help cover the needs of the Myanmar curriculum rollout, the GPE program is set to recruit, train and continuously support 1,200 teachers. Priority will be given to female teachers to encourage more families to send their adolescent girls to the learning centers.

Teacher professional development in primary level includes peer learning in teacher learning circles and includes training for pedagogical skills, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, and emergency preparedness for effective response to ensure continuity of learning.

In secondary level, the teachers receive training for subject-based pedagogy and learning assessment as well as courses for improving Burmese and English language competencies.

Mohammad Yunus, a grade 6 Burmese and social studies teacher from the Rohingya community at Chayabithi Learning Center, has benefited from the teacher training: “After joining as a Myanmar curriculum pilot teacher, we received different types of teacher professional development training, including training in Burmese and English. We learned a lot. These trainings are very helpful for us to teach the children more effectively.”

While the future of the Rohingya community in Bangladesh is unknown, education will play a key role in developing the skills that thousands of Rohingya children and adolescents need to seize future opportunities, enjoy greater wellbeing and contribute to society.

For girls like Ismat, being able to attend a learning center secures her right to education, gives her stability and hope, and helps to protect her from child labor and child marriage.

GPE, UNICEF and partners remain committed to taking bold steps on providing children and adolescents, especially the girls both in the camp and the host community of Cox’s Bazar, with safe and supportive learning spaces and trained teachers.