Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Malaysia

Rohingya refugee children face immense challenges in getting access to education. Research shows that Rohingya children in Bangladesh are facing an educational crisis: they cannot attend public schools, and their education is restricted to limited non-formal education from NGOs and sporadic refugee-organized teaching efforts. Of the five countries that prohibit refugees from accessing public schooling – Bangladesh, Burundi, China, Malaysia and Nepal – Malaysia hosts the second largest number of Rohingya refugees. What level of access do these children have to schooling? This policy brief investigates Rohingya refugees’ access to non-formal education in Malaysia through the cases of two community-based refugee schools.