Reports on Rohingya children learning closure false, fabricated: MoFA

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has said the reports on closure of Rohingya children learning facilities and barring teachers or students to attend the classes are false and fabricated.

“It is deep concern that disinformation is being propagated about the learning facilities for the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN)/Rohingya children,” the ministry said in a press statement Thursday.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh government is working with the UN agencies to gradually bring learning facilities under Myanmar Curriculum, streamline the volunteer teacher’s engagement and adopting policies for their capacity building.

Bangladesh government places great importance on ensuring access to education for all especially for girls and in a similar vein while it is facilitating learning activities for the Rohingya children inside the camps, it said.

“Reports of closure of learning facilities, barring teachers or students to attend there are false and fabricated,” read the statement.

The ministry said Bangladesh government has arranged learning scopes for the Rohingya children inside the camps through around 5,617 learning facilities all of which are in operation.

Neither Education Sector Operators in Rohingya Camps nor UNICEF raised any concern about closing any learning facility, it added.

The FDMN children study under the UNICEF and BRAC developed curriculum called ‘Learning Competency Framework and Approach (LCFA)’ in the Camps completely free of charge.

Since the end of last year, a pilot project, called Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP), has been rolled out in Rohingya Camps which follows Myanmar Curriculum and is conducted primarily in Myanmar language.

It would gradually replace the LCFA. UNICEF is the lead agency to roll out the Myanmar Curriculum inside the camps free of charge in the learning centers in a phased manner for grades one to twelve.

Besides, students in need of special help like the disabled, or adolescent girls who face difficulties attending learning centers because of the conservative mindset of their families, can attend alternate learning facilities described as community-based learning centers.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh appreciates the international community’s cooperation to facilitate early, sustainable, and voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya to their ancestral land in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

Bangladesh considers continuation of learning under Myanmar Curriculum as an effort to keep the children engaged in productive and capacity building activities which would work as incentive for their early voluntary repatriation.