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Imran Mohammed
Future Learning Academy and Bright Future Academy in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Who am I and what have I done?
My name is Imran Mohammed, and I arrived in Bangladesh as a two-year-old child in 1991. My father needed medical care after escaping the state-sponsored oppression against the Rohingya minority in Arakan. In my early years I witnessed the atrocities first hand, found ways to learn English and Bangla by myself and acquired knowledge about Rohingya history, culture and current affairs. As elected representative of the Rohingya in the camp I coordinated activities for several UN agencies, NGOS and the GoB working in the camp and I got an opportunity to serve dozens of photojournalists, writers, diplomats, and researchers from Bangladesh and outside. My lack of opportunities and formal education turned me into an activist. I established Future Learning Academy (FLA) and Bright Future Academy (BFA) to educate refugee children, giving them opportunities I lacked.
What is the context?
Rohingya refugees are a stateless community, expelled from their homeland Arakan in northwest Myanmar by the Myanmar military government. The displaced Rohingya are living in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, to mention just the countries with the biggest communities. With 1,200,000 Rohingya inside its borders, Bangladesh carries the biggest burden, with 34 refugee camps in the Tekhnaf and Ukhiya Upazilla ‘s in Cox’s Bazar District in southeast Bangladesh. Perspectives for the community are grim and worsening due to the political stalemate between Myanmar and Bangladesh. The world mostly looks the other way, making the Rohingya an example of a ‘forgotten people’.
Education can be a way out of this desperate situation, but establishing learning centres inside a refugee camp is not an easy task. Difficulties include limited and unsuitable learning spaces, lack of a stable educational infrastructure, insufficient financial resources, limited access to formal education, difficulty providing teacher remuneration and the absence of formal recognition for community-based learning centres.
Informal education to Rohingya refugee children
FLA and BFA are community-based learning centres established to support educational development and future aspirations of Rohingya children who are growing up in displacement. Due to the limited availability of formal opportunities within the refugee-camp, our centres currently focus on informal education. Our education is not only a means of academic development, but also a pathway to dignity, identity, confidence, leadership and hope for a better future.
Our learning programme is designed to provide children from the displaced, underserved and underprivileged Rohingya community with a pathway to quality education and personal development. We focus on strengthening basic literacy, numeracy, communication, and essential learning skills while gradually developing students’ critical thinking, discipline, confidence, moral values and awareness of their rights and responsibilities. We encourage our students to dream beyond the limitations of displacement, pursue further education, communicate confidently with the wider world, represent their community with knowledge and integrity and contribute to positive change.
FLA and BFA serve more than 200 students from the refugee camps. The Academies operate with five classrooms, with students organised into shifts to accommodate to the growing number of
learners within our limited facilities. Currently there are seven teachers associated with the Academies, including two female and five male teachers. The teaching team consists of the Principal and Assistant Teachers, who are actively involved in the Academy’s daily educational activities and development.
What have been the challenges?
At present the Academies do not have a fixed salary structure or sufficient financial resources to provide regular remuneration to its teachers. Despite this, all seven teachers continue to serve on an unpaid basis, voluntarily contributing their time, knowledge and efforts to the children in the camp. Finding qualified and committed teachers within the community is challenging, as the number of educated individuals is limited and many are already engaged in other community services.
FLA and BFA operate as informal, community-based education initiatives and do not have government recognition or authorisation to issue formal academic certificates. Therefore, where appropriate, we provide community-based certificates to acknowledge students’ participation and learning. Our long-term aspiration is to create pathways that can connect students with recognised formal education and certification opportunities.
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What is next and where are the opportunities?
Because we currently operate without external support, our immediate priority is to develop meaningful partnerships and sustainable funding mechanisms that can help us improve our learning environment, strengthen educational quality, support teachers, and reach more children. For one, it would simplify finding much needed qualified and committed teachers. The general big aim remains supporting our students while gradually improving our classrooms, learning materials, facilities and overall quality of education. Reducing student dropout is a third objective, particularly among children whose education has been interrupted by financial difficulties, displacement or irregular attendance. We therefore really want to bring these children back into learning, strengthen their basic knowledge and help them catch up with their peers.
COMMEET follows and supports FLA and BFA with special interest to gather insights in the field of resilience in refugee camps, and it warmly recommends it for financial support. Are you interested in supporting this specific project in Bangladesh and make our ambitions for the Rohingya refugees come true? Do you want me to tell you more about the Academies learning in general in displaced communities? Please get into a conversation with me:
Imran Mohammed Imran.rrsa@gmail.com
(1) Bright Future Academy – BFA | Facebook
(2) Future Learning Academy – FLA | Facebook
I really look forward to talking to you.
And if you like what you hear, please feel free to make a labelled donation here already towards our valuable work in Bangladesh.
