Education is a major factor in every child's development, but it is especially true in humanitarian situations. Children from the Rohingya community may become frustrated and dejected due to their uncertain future. When they lack adequate educational possibilities, they are more susceptible to the risks of trafficking, underage marriage, exploitation, and abuse.
On the other hand, Cox's Bazar consistently ranks among Bangladesh's poorest districts in terms of both child growth and academic success. The Cox's Bazar district has the lowest net intake rate in the country for the first grade of the primary cycle, standing at 72.6% for boys and 69.1% for girls compared to the national average of 98%, according to the Annual Primary School Census of 2016. (MoPME, 2016). In comparison to the national averages of 22.3% and 16.1%, boys and girls in primary school dropout rates are the highest in the country at 39.6% and 22.8%, respectively.
A major round of violence that broke out in Myanmar in August 2017 caused a huge number of Rohingya to migrate to neighboring countries. Most of them fled their homes in fear and migrated across land and water borders to Bangladesh. UNICEF deemed the situation in Cox's Bazar to be at level three emergency due to the increased volume and complexity of the pre-existing situation.
Bangladesh is having difficulties protecting all of the human rights of the Rohingya population, particularly in regards to access to educational opportunities. Giving all Rohingya children a quality education does not seem to be an easy task either. The Bangladeshi government and other organizations made a number of improvements. The host community and the Rohingya refugees, however, do not have enough things to do.
Residents of Cox's Bazaar said the Rohingya invasion appeared out of nowhere. The world's largest country by population is Bangladesh. There are roughly 164.8 million people residing here. Currently, Bangladesh is tenth in the world in terms of population. As a result, Bangladesh finds it difficult to give both the host community and refugee children access to high-quality education.
However, most communities and lifestyles have changed as a result of the COVID-19 preventative initiatives. Due to widespread orders to stay at home that towns and countries have given to their populations, millions of people are being quarantined around the world. Even though they are crucial for preventing the spread of the infection, these viral mitigation methods are getting harder to implement in refugee settlements. The Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh are a prime example of how a disease epidemic within a camp for refugees can have disastrous effects. It is everyone's concern to address the immediate educational needs of Rohingya refugees as well as the kids, teens, and young people (boys and girls) in the host community, which have been made worse by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Plan International aimed to strengthen and improve the access to learning opportunities for crisis-affected refugee and host community children and adolescents aged 6-14, by mainstreaming COVID-19 mitigation measures and addressing new challenges in terms of increased child protection needs, with funding from the Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID).] The evaluation covered the camps 1E, 1W, 3, 6 in Ukhiya (Cox’s Bazar) and 5 union under Ukhiya upazila namely Raja palong, Ratna Palong, Jaliya Palong, Holodiya Palong and Palong khali.
Datascape social research unit implementing the project with the support of Plan International in Bangladesh.