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The recent Human Rights Watch report on the Rohingya education crisis in Bangladesh should be a wake-up call for the entire international community. According to the findings, more than 6,400 learning centers in the Rohingya refugee camps have been shut down, cutting off educational access for approximately 300,000 children. This is not just a tragedy for these young people, it is a deliberate failure that will haunt the region for generations.

The closures, driven by deep cuts in foreign aid, are not simply about bricks and mortar. They represent the systematic erasure of hope for an already persecuted and stateless population. Education is the only lifeline that could offer Rohingya children a chance to break the cycle of displacement, dependency and despair. Instead, they are being pushed into a future where illiteracy, child labor, exploitation and radicalization are their only options.

The consequences are stark. Without access to basic education, this generation of Rohingya will remain permanently cut off from the skills and knowledge they need to support themselves or contribute meaningfully to any future society, whether in Myanmar, should repatriation ever become possible, or elsewhere in the region. Their entire existence will be defined by dependence on shrinking aid budgets and precarious handouts.

And this is not just a moral failure. It is a strategic blunder.

By denying education to nearly a third of a million children, we are laying the groundwork for long-term instability

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

By denying education to nearly a third of a million children, we are laying the groundwork for long-term instability in the region. Disaffected, disenfranchised youths are vulnerable to criminal networks and extremist groups that thrive in precisely these kinds of environments. Human traffickers and armed groups will find in the camps a large, desperate and increasingly ungoverned population. Bangladesh, already overwhelmed, will bear the brunt of this fallout.

For Bangladesh, which has already shown remarkable generosity by hosting nearly a million Rohingya since 2017, the consequences will be profound. With more than half the refugees now under the age of 18, the collapse of the education system will lead to a steep rise in social and economic burdens. In the absence of structured learning and opportunity, the refugee population will be left with little recourse but to rely on the host country for indefinite support. This is not sustainable economically, politically or socially.

Some officials have framed the issue as a simple result of donor fatigue. But that is a dangerously misleading narrative. The international community is not being asked to bankroll a long-term welfare project. It is being asked to prevent the creation of a vast, disenfranchised underclass that will destabilize the region for decades to come. The current aid cuts, which have brought support down to just $3 per person per month, are not just irresponsible, they are self-defeating.

Bangladesh’s government has historically restricted Rohingya access to formal education, citing concerns about permanent integration. Children were allowed only informal learning centers using a basic curriculum. Yet even these limited systems are now being dismantled. While Dhaka understandably fears anything that could imply long-term resettlement, cutting education sends the worst possible signal: that the world no longer sees the Rohingya as worth investing in.

This must change. Education is not a political luxury, it is a humanitarian imperative.

There are clear, achievable steps the international community and regional governments can take

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

There are clear, achievable steps the international community and regional governments can take. First, the immediate restoration of funding for basic education services through the UN and key nongovernmental organizations must be prioritized. Major donors, especially the US, the EU, the UK and Gulf countries, must recognize that education is the front line of regional stability.

Second, Bangladesh should ease restrictions on formal education and allow the full rollout of the Myanmar national curriculum in exile. This curriculum, supported by UNICEF, offers Rohingya children a pathway to eventual reintegration into Myanmar, aligning with Bangladesh’s long-term goal of repatriation.

Third, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other regional stakeholders, including Malaysia and Indonesia, must advocate for more sustainable funding mechanisms and long-term development strategies for the exiled Rohingya, ensuring they are treated not merely as a burden but as future contributors to peace and prosperity in the region.

Fourth, a global Rohingya education fund could be established — a multidonor pooled mechanism focused specifically on protecting and restoring education in the refugee camps, with oversight from an international body to ensure transparency and impact.

Ultimately, this crisis is about more than the future of 300,000 children. It is about whether we, as an international community, are prepared to uphold our basic moral responsibilities or whether we are content to let an entire people slide into oblivion.

We already failed the Rohingya when we allowed their genocide to unfold in Myanmar. Failing them again in exile by taking away even the hope of a future is a betrayal of a different kind, but no less devastating.

If the world cannot summon the will to fund pencils and books for stateless children, then what exactly is left of our shared humanity?

• Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the director of special initiatives at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, DC. X: @AzeemIbrahim