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. ----- UNICEF/UNI206049/Karimi ---- 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 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism