Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Thursday on the grave impact of humanitarian aid cutbacks on the education crisis in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps. The group urged the country’s interim government to lift restrictions on refugees and intergovernmental agencies to include Rohingya educators in the decision-making process.

In early June, the decline in foreign humanitarian assistance prompted the shutdowns of learning centers operated by the United Nations Children’s Fund and Save the Children. In addition to a general decrease in donations, US President Trump’s executive order to freeze humanitarian funds shrank its aid from US$300 million in 2024 to US$12 million as of June 2025. The shutdowns of 6,400 learning centers impacted the right to education of nearly 300,000 children in the area. Cox’s Bazar Area director of Save the Children International Golam Mostofa said at the time:

Nobody wants to take education away from children, least of all children who come from families that have already endured so much trauma and hardship. However, funding shortfalls have forced us to make the incredibly difficult decision to shut thousands of learning centers.

Lack of official recognition for the community-led schools that remain in operation exacerbates the education crisis, undermines students’ education opportunities and exposes children to child labor and gang violence, according to HRW. The lack of recognition also deprives these community-led schools of obtaining foreign donations.

Advocating for the support of community-led education networks, the group drew attention to the expertise of the humanitarian education sector in Bangladesh, in particular its knowledge of the Rohingya and Burmese languages. HRW urged the interim government to recognize these schools and for international agencies to cooperate with these humanitarian education networks.

Bangladesh has been hosting Rohingya refugees since the Myanmar military’s persecution against the Rohingya ethnic group. However, according to Man For Man International Foundation researcher Shahriar Yeasin Khan, Bangladesh’s previous administration persistently refused to establish permanent schools, believing that these schools might encourage Rohingya refugees not to return to Myanmar.

Several international conventions protect children’s right to education, including Article 10 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Further, the refugee status of Rohingya children in Bangladesh does not defeat the right to education as Article 22 of the UN 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees specifically prevents a government from evading its responsibility to protect refugees’ right to education. In this regard, HRW accused Bangladesh of violating its international obligations by failing to provide formal education to Rohingya children in 2019.