Kutupalong, Bangladesh

ROHINGYA REFUGEE CAMP

Why are we here?

Since August 2017, over 723,000 members of the Rohingya community in Myanmar have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence. The number of Rohingya in refugee camps has exceeded the total population of the host communities. They are living in highly crowded conditions and are faced with innumerable challenges. A majority of the population in camps are children (~500,000).

What are we doing?

In 2018, we launched a digital learning program in a massive refugee camp located in Kutupalong. We trained project officers and facilitators from the refugee and host community to engage ~90 children through an interactive curriculum that covered English, Math and Burmese (the Rohingya root language). This program was run in three two-hour shifts. 

We then gave 30 preschoolers our tablets with two major programs: English (using Footsteps2Brilliance educational technology) and Math (using Dragonbox technology). Each session lasted for 120 minutes.

What is the impact?

We saw that learning gains through our digital program were  greater than with the traditional classroom style of learning. So, we were able to shorten school timings to two hours per day and accommodate an even larger number of refugee children who needed education. 

We even saw these children lining up outside the learning center far in advance of their allocated time. This further endorses the effectiveness of games in enhancing learning and engagement of children. Since the children have been through a lot of trauma from displacement and atrocities they have witnessed, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), as prescribed by UNICEF, has also been introduced in the digital model. 

A second pilot was introduced in July 2019 with 90 children. The student attendance in these pilots remains impeccable. The results from baseline to midline assessments of the program show 2~2.5x gains in learning.

What’s next?

Our digital method is seen as a highly effective method of learning in the refugee environment. The goal is to scale it to all of the learning centers in the Kutupalong area.