Rohingya Refugee Crisis: The issue of children's education remains

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Since August 2017, over 700-thousand ethnic Rohingya refugees in Myanmar have fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a military crackdown. And the massive influx of child refugees has prompted aid workers in Bangladesh to develop a school curriculum and a crash course for new instructors. Dave Grunebaum has the story.

In this refugee camp classroom, ethnic Rohingya children learn the basics of the Myanmar language, also known as Burmese.

They get lessons in Math, English and life skills too.

ABDUL HAMID ROHINGYA REFUGEE "I like English the most."

The teacher is also a Rohingya refugee. Yet he only has a high school education. A common story for many of the instructors here.

JEAN METENIER UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND "We are quite well aware that these teachers don't have the competencies and the skills to really teach them. This is why we are developing in parallel a program in order to have comprehensive training systems."

Refugees are not allowed to enroll in Bangladesh schools. So the United Nations Children's Fund and non-government organizations have opened about two-thousand learning centers for students ages 4 to 14.

And they're building more. About one-third of the more than 300-thousand child refugees in this age range still do not have access to schooling. The reasons include funding as well as the time it takes to hire and train teachers.

But even for those kids who are enrolled, many of them are only in class for two hours a day.

Reporter "Do you think this will be enough to provide what would be an adequate education?"

JEAN METENIER UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND "Adequate education no, but basic education yes. I would say giving them the basics in terms of literacy, numeracy, life skills."

Assessment tests show that 65 percent of the refugees ages 4 to 14 have not even reached the academic level of a first grader.

This only increases the sense of urgency to educate them now.

BEATRIZ OCHOA SAVE THE CHILDREN "Everything we're doing in education with the Rohingya refugee children is taken in an incremental approach and building little by little: the capacity of the teachers, building the temporary learning centers, building a curricula."

DAVE GRUNEBAUM COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH "There are concerns that there could be a lost generation of Rohingya children who miss out on proper schooling and this will impact not only their livelihoods as adults but the productivity of the Rohingya community."

Nine-year-old Abdul Hamid's mother is concerned about the quality of education her son is getting.

ROZIA PARENT "If our children can not get proper schooling, their future will be bad."

BEATRIZ OCHOA SAVE THE CHILDREN "We can not afford to have a lost generation of Rohingya children. This is one of the biggest concerns. Why? Because if children are not getting the quality of education they deserve, then what's going to happen to future generations?"

Educators say they're trying to help these children develop the skills they need to become productive adults. The future of the Rohingya community depends on it.

Dave Grunebaum, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.