Ask The Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh To #LetRohingyaLearn
Her Excellency Shaykh Hasina Wajid
Prime Minister’s Office
CC H. E. Foreign Minister Md. Shahriar Alam
We are writing on behalf of Rohingya Muslims, who have long faced drastic limits on access to school in their homeland of Rakhine State, Burma. Since they were forced out by the Burmese military in the 2017 genocide, nearly 560,000 Rohingya children are living in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. We appreciate your excellency’s welcome and the hospitality of Bangladeshis to the Rohingya people. Despite the much-appreciated hospitality of the Bangladesh nation, Rohingya still face numerous limitations on education. We, therefore, request allowing full educational opportunities to Rohingya children. The recent Burma military coup has made it clear, Rohingya repatriation will not happen in the foreseeable future.
It is time to expand access to education.
Burma Task Force has published its new report “Let Them Learn: Confronting the Need for Rohingya Education,” which can be downloaded here.
We respectfully request your excellency to order the following:
- Allow Rohingya children to study beyond a third-grade level
- Lift all limitations on levels of instruction, choice of language, curriculum, and medium of instruction
- Provide certifications for all levels of education to allow a path to higher education.
- Facilitate distance learning by allowing full internet access on mobile phones.
- Partner with Rohingya leadership in camps, including youth leaders in discussions to educate and empower Rohingya boys and girls
- Allow donor funds to flow into Rohingya-run schools, not limited to Learning Centers run by NGOs.
Education is the basic foundation for human potential. We trust your government will help to protect the human dignity of the Rohingya people. We request your Excellency to issue an executive order to prevent this new Rohingya generation from becoming another lost generation.
Sincerely,
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Why you should sign the petition to PM of Bangladesh
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children have been crowded into vast refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Unfortunately, local authorities have largely ignored Rohingya rights to education.
Like animals in a zoo, young refugees are kept alive with regular feeding, but their human potential has been ignored.
“The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the poverty and isolation of these displaced people. In this crisis, the Bangladesh Government should completely cease internet shutdowns and restrictions on mobile phones, to allow distance learning to develop,” stated report writer Adem Carroll, United Nations Programs Director for Burma Task Force. “Considering the Burmese military coup of February 1, 2021, the Rohingya in Bangladesh are highly unlikely to be repatriated to their homeland in the foreseeable future, meaning that students should be allowed to study using the curriculum of their choice and to attend high school.”
ADEM CARROLL
“I was a Rohingya refugee in Malaysia and Indonesia, among other places,” added Burma Task Force Program Associate Imran Hoque. “This report begins a troubling examination of how many host nations deny basic rights to refugees and destroy hope. But access to education could restore that hope and ensure we Rohingya can be productive citizens and good neighbors. We, refugees, want to be partners in creating a better future together. We do not want to be anyone’s “problem.”
IMRAN HOQUE