COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, 5 June 2025 – About 300,000 [1] children risk missing out on education after UNICEF, Save the Children and partners were forced to close learning facilities in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, due to funding cuts, said Save the Children.
In a letter to the Refugee Relief Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) sent on 3 June, UNICEF and Save the Children, as co-leads to the Education Sector, said that learning facilities in the camps have shut with ‘immediate effect’ and will resume ‘after further notice.’
The move affects more than 6,400 learning centers in Cox’s Bazar – the world’s largest refugee camp – which is home to about one million people including more than 500,000 children.[1] The closures exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Golam Mostofa, Cox’s Bazar Area Director, Save the Children International, said:
“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 centres.
“This should not be the world that we live in. Far too many children, including Rohingya children, don’t have access to basic quality education. We believe every child deserves to access learning opportunities, so it is heartbreaking for us to have to shut these centres.
“Hopefully, these closures will be temporary, and funding will be made available.”
Save the Children has been working in Cox’s Bazar since 2012 and increased activities significantly following the 2017 exodus of refugees to Bangladesh with programmes in education, health and nutrition, food, water, shelter and child protection services. But underfunding has severely hampered humanitarian efforts to support refugees and hosts in Bangladesh.
NOTES TO EDITORS
[2] Geneva Palais briefing note: Malnutrition tightening its grip on children in Rohingya refugee Camps
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Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Global Media Manager based in BANGKOK: Amy.Lefevre@savethechildren.org
We have Golam Mostofa available as a spokesperson. He is based in Bangladesh.
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