Refugee Children in Islamic Countries Deprived Of Education
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
27 January
2023
Bangladesh,
Burundi, Nepal, China And Malaysia Do Not Allow Refugee Children To Enrol In
Public Schools
Main
Points:
1. In
Bangladesh, government closed learning centres in Rohingya refugee camps.
2. In Lebanon,
Syrian refugee children are discouraged to enrol in schools.
3. In Malaysia,
Rohingya children are not allowed to enrol in public schools.
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UNICEF/UNI206049/Karimi
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Islam
preaches equality and removal of racial and ethnic discrimination. It
guarantees human rights to all irrespective of nationality and ethnicity. But
the refugees in Islamic countries face injustice, racial discrimination and
persecution.
The refugee
crisis has aggravated in Islamic countries in the last decade after the Syrian
civil war and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The Syrian Muslims took shelter in
Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and European countries.
The
Rohingya Muslims fled persecution and military crackdown in 2017 and took
shelter in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, more than 8 lakh Rohingya Muslims have
been lodged in refugee camps in Cox Bazar and Bhasan Char island.
Rohingyas
have also taken shelter in Malaysia.
One of the
problems the refugees in these countries face is the lack of access to formal
education to their children.
In Lebanon,
Syrian refugee children are denied education on the basis of not being able to
provide certified government documents. The documents required for enrolment
are birth certificate, legal residency certificate and other documents issued
by the Syrian government. The public schools run second shift classes in the
afternoon for refugee children as they are not allowed for morning classes
along with Lebanese children. The teachers of the afternoon classes are paid by
donor agencies. In January, the teachers went on a strike over their demand of
higher wages. So the government also suspended afternoon classes for Syrian
children on the ground that if the Lebanese children do not attend classes, the
Syrian children will also not be allowed to attend classes because if it is
done, it will be injustice to the Lebanese children. The education ministry gave
the argument that the educational authority cannot suspend morning classes
attended by Lebanese children while maintaining the afternoon shifts allocated
to the Syrian children.
Earlier,
the Lebanese government made rules harder for Syrian children. The education
ministry has formulated discriminatory laws that undermine Syrian children's
education. The Human Rights Watch has demanded that Syrian children be allowed
to enrol without Lebanese residency, birth certificate or Syrian government
documents and need not provide evidence of previous formal education.
In Lebanon,
there are more than 6 lakh Syrian refugee children out whom 200,000 have never
been to school and 60 per cent children have not enrolled in schools in recent
years. Even those who enrolled have not received education since 2019 due to
anti corruption protests and Covid-19 lockdown.
Some
principals of primary schools have racial and biased approach towards Syrian
students. They make derogatory remarks about them and demand documents that are
not required by the education ministry.
A Lebanese
legal residency certificate costs $200 annually which most parents can't
afford. Less than 16 per cent Syrian children have legal residency. They live
on rent which is hard to pay. 90 per cent of Syrian refugees live below the
Lebanese poverty line. Principals also demand birth certificates issued by the
Syrian government. 70 per cent children don't have birth certificate.
The
education ministry of Lebanon also requires Syrian children to take the Brevet
examination after nine years of formal education and the Baccalaureate
examination at the end of secondary education.
Many Syrian
students leave public schools because of mistreatment by Lebanese teachers and
enrol in
learning
centres run by humanitarian groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
40,000 Syrian children receive non- formal education in these learning centres.
But the education ministry has made laws that makes transition of the children
from non- formal to formal schools difficult by requiring certification from
the education ministry.
Another
hurdle in the access to education for Syrian children is that they should
complete an Accelerated Learning Program ( ALP) if they have been out of school
for more than two years.
Therefore,
racial discrimination, government authorities' treatment and the behaviour of
teachers and principals have been hurdles in the education of Syrian refugees
in Lebanon.
In
Bangladesh, the situation is more grim. Though the Bangladesh government has
hosted more than 8 lakh Rohingya refugees, it has its own problems. It is one
of the five countries together with Nepal, Burundi, China and Malaysia that do
not allow access to formal education to refugees.
Bangladesh
also does not allow refugee children to enrol in public and private schools of
Bangladesh and learn Bangla language for the fear of their integration in the
Bangladeshi society. It fears that if Rohingya mix up with Bangladeshi society
they may not want to go back to Myanmar.
Bangladesh
only allows basic nursery education to Rohingya children in learning centres
run by humanitarian groups. Only children under the,age of 14 are allowed to
study. The lessons allowed are informal and unaccredited. Learning and teaching
of Bangla language by Rohingyas is strictly prohibited.
In order to
impart formal education to Rohingya children, the volunteers from among the
Rohingyas set up many learning centres inside the refugee camps. Madrasas were
also set up to impart them basic Islamic education. Since 2018, many makeshift
learning centres and madrasas were set up. 35,000 Rohingya children attended
3,200 learning centres. Most of them were supported by the UNICEF. In these
learning centres subjects were taught according to the syllabus of Myanmar and
secondary level classes were run.
But the
Bangladesh government decided to close all the schools and madrasas run by the
volunteers for not sufficient reasons. In March 2022, the government started
closing such schools. The authorities threatened the refugees that if they attended
the learning centres, their identity cards called data cards would be
confiscated and they would be relocated to the prison island Bhasan Char which
is flood prone.
The
authorities allege that the learning centres were opened without written
permission and that Bangla was taught there. In April 2022, the last learning
centre was closed by the authorities.
This is in
violation of the educational rights of children. The European Union granted
Bangladesh free trade benefits contingent upon upholding human rights in
treaties including the convention in the rights of child which prohibits
discrimination against refugee childrens ' education.
In
Malaysia, the Rohingyas are considered illegal immigrants and so they always
live in fear of arrests and deportation. The refugee children do not have
access to formal education. Volunteers run schools for Rohingya children which
are not approved by the Malaysian government. These schools are known as
underground schools.
Therefore,
Islamic countries have deprived Syrian and Rohingya children of education
because of ethnic and racial bias and for the fear of their integration in the
local society. They not only violate the Quranic principle of universal
brotherhood but also the UN Charter on Human Rights to which they are
signatories.
The World
Bank, the Global Partnership for Education and Foreign bilateral donors and
trade partners of Bangladesh, Lebanon and Malaysia should demand an immediate
end to policies blocking Syrian and Rohingya children 's education in particular,
and all refugee children in general.
-----
S.
Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/refugee-children-islamic-education/d/128973
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