VOA教育报道2022--孟加拉国关闭罗辛亚营私立学校

Bangladesh Closes Rohingya Camp Private Schools

The Bangladesh government closed the last private school for Rohingya refugees last month.

The Kayaphuri School in the Kutupalaung Rohingya refugee camp was founded in 2019 by a Rohingya leader who was killed last year. The school was the latest of about 30 such schools closed by the police. Some closed on their own because the police were going to shut them down.

With the March 24 shutdown of the school in southern Bangladesh, no schools remain in operation.

Mohammad Showife was the head of the school. He was working in his office when police raided the building. He told VOA the police took his computer and printer. The next day, police took seats from classrooms and locked the school door.

"Police asked whether we had any official permission for the school," he said. "We didn't have any in a written format¹. Our leader...got verbal permission from [an official appointed by the government] to open the school. Now all of a sudden, the Bangladesh government decides to close it down."

Many of the schools were made of wood with cloth roofs. There were few classroom materials inside. But they were very important to the thousands of Rohingya children with very limited ability to go to school in the camps. The government did not give legal status to the refugee-led schools. But the government agreed in 2020 to permit them to operate and promised aid if needed.

Bangladesh's Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation² Commissioner³ provides humanitarian⁴ assistance for Rohingya refugees. It said on December 13 that all private schools in the Rohingya camps "must be shut down." They were "illegal" because they did not have official permission to operate.

After the order, police began raiding the schools and seizing school materials, including seats and computers, sources told VOA.

The organization Human Rights Watch said Bangladesh officials threatened to seize Rohingya refugees' identification documents. They also threatened to forcibly relocate them to a distant island if they violated the ban on the schools.

Bill Van Esveld is with Human Rights Watch. He said: "First the government blocked meaningful education for Rohingya children, then it closed the schools Rohingya set up for themselves, and now it threatens to banish⁵ teachers and students to a prison-like island."

Closure of largest school

Showife, the head of the school, said he had been fearing a raid after two other private schools were also closed down by police.

Eighth-grader Rabeya Akter, 15, said the closure had ruined her dream of becoming an engineer.

"After we fled Myanmar in 2017, we were idle for a year and a half, but this school gave us" a chance to resume our education, she said. "I am worried because my family might want to marry me off. I don't want to get married so early."

Ayatullah is in ninth grade. He said, "I was dreaming of becoming a doctor. Now it's all gone. There are no other ways for us to get further education."

'Illegal establishments'

Officials are defending their actions, saying they have only stopped the operations of "illegal establishments."

In an interview with VOA, Additional Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Shamsud Douza said, "Would you allow an illegal establishment to operate in your premises⁷ for long? I guess not."

Douza said the Kayaphuri school did not have permission to operate. He said that some of its teachers were teaching the official Bangla language, which the government bars. It does not want Rohingyas to integrate into Bangladesh and permanently⁸ remain in the country.

Douza said the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is leading the effort to teach Rohingya children.

The UNICEF office in Bangladesh told VOA that over 350,000 Rohingya refugee children are attending 3,200 learning centers in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps. UNICEF supports 2,800 of the centers.

Abdur Rahim is the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a Rohingya support group. He told VOA the learning centers teach children up to age 14, but the teaching does not go past second grade.

"That's why we had started those private schools inside the camps so that our children could get secondary level education," Rahim said.

He added that thousands of children between 14 and 18 years old are now left without a place to learn.

Words in This Story

format — n. the form, design, or arrangement of something

verbal — adj. spoken rather than written

source — n. a person, book, etc., that gives information

banish — v. to send someone or something away

idle — adj. not working, active, or being used

allow — v. to permit

premise⁶ — n. a building and the area of land that it is on

integrate — v. to make a person or group part of a larger group or organization

1 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

2 repatriation   

n.遣送回国，归国

参考例句：

• The Volrep programme is the preferred means of repatriation. 政府认为自愿遣返计划的遣返方法较为可取。 来自互联网
• Arrange the cargo claiming and maritime affairs,crews repatriation,medical treatment,traveling so on. （六）洽办货物理赔，船舶海事处理，办理船员遣返，就医，旅游等。 来自互联网

3 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

5 banish   

vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除

参考例句：

• The doctor advised her to banish fear and anxiety.医生劝她消除恐惧和忧虑。
• He tried to banish gloom from his thought.他试图驱除心中的忧愁。

6 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

7 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

8 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。