The students in Ismat Ara Jannat Sheuly’s class are having too much fun. There's no doubt that they're learning, but they're doing it through “play”.
Sheuly’s school, the Shishu Bikash Kendra (SBK) early childhood center in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, employs the “learning through play” education approach implemented by development programs around the world.
The approach offers early learners the opportunity to explore their environment through hands-on activities. By focusing on the elements of “play”, teachers expand on the natural curiosity of children to help them develop essential skills, like literacy and numeracy, through playful interactions with objects and people.
The foundations of mathematics can be grasped by dancing and clapping in one classroom, while colors and shapes can be learned using geometric blocks in another. And in times of crisis and uncertainty, these skills are even more important.
In Cox's Bazar, where Sheuly’s lives with her husband and three children, the opportunity to teach this program is provided by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund dedicated to supporting children to access an education in emergency settings.
Like her students, Sheuly is also a Rohingya refugee, and keenly aware of the possibilities learning offers young children, their parents, and communities.
“My youngest child is a learner at this center, and before it, my community was less aware of the importance of childcare development,” Sheuly told Global Citizen. “This center is helping children and their families gain a better understanding of the importance of early education while helping [the children’s] cognitive and emotional development.”
Rohingya refugee children play at the Shishu Bikash Kendra early childhood center in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, which employs the “learning through play” education approach implemented UN organization, Education Cannot Wait.
In Southeast Asia, one of the most pressing refugee crises is currently unfolding. Over the past six years, nearly a million Rohingya refugees have fled persecution and violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State to Cox's Bazar district in Bangladesh's capital city, Dakar.
The children in Sheuly's center, along with thousands more in her Cox's Bazar settlement, are increasingly vulnerable. The Rohingya make up the largest stateless population in the world — a situation that deprives them of basic human rights, and refuses them access to the most fundamental necessities.
Living across 34 enclosed camps surrounded by barbed wire and razor fencing, and without Bangladeshi citizenship or recognition in Myanmar, the Rohingya community are unable to work, or access local services or education. In December 2022, Bangladeshi officials went so far as to shut down more than 30 Rohingya schools in settlements to discourage the communities against settling permanently in the country.
For the children of SBK center, learning through play is creating safe spaces where these resilient children can not only learn but also heal and flourish.
For the 400,000 school-aged children in Cox’s Bazar, 40% of whom are under the age of 12, education can provide a safe haven and an opportunity to thrive. Children everywhere deserve the chance to learn, but the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR estimates that half of the 3.5 million refugee children of primary school age worldwide are unable to access education.
Most children who live in Cox’s Bazar have never participated in formal schooling, and those not in school often find little to do in the camps, and the lack of opportunities to learn or engage in activities places them at high risk of exploitation.
At the Global Citizen Festival in 2022, the LEGO Foundation announced a groundbreaking commitment of US $25 million to ECW, thanks to the actions of Global Citizens.
Today, this funding is helping ECW deliver assistance to crises all over the world, which includes the implementation of the “learning through play” strategy and play-based learning methods in centers like Sheuly’s.
Through play, students at Shishu Bikash Kendra School are developing critical social and emotional skills, self-advocacy, and emotional awareness to help them cope with trauma. This also includes training family members in schooling and basic medical care, ensuring that education becomes a sustainable solution deeply rooted within the community.
Students finish school for the day and wait for parents to pick them up. When humanitarian crises arise, like armed conflict or natural disasters, children are particularly vulnerable to threats.
The center's professionally designed Crèche and Preschool for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Program, provides children and their families with childcare, nutrition training and meals, and regular doctor visits.
For the children of SBK center, learning through play is creating safe spaces where these resilient children can not only learn but also heal and flourish.
Nishu Moni and Amin, two five-year-old Rohingya students from the center, love school because in it they can learn while playing. “We learn through games here and have gained knowledge about fish names, flower names, color names, and animal names,” said Amin.
For Sheuly, while the future remains uncertain, the small victories bring her joy. “After the session, someone from the center will demonstrate what they have learned to their parents, and I feel happy to hear the parent’s positive feedback on it.”
In 2022, ECW released a report revealing that the number of crisis-impacted school-aged children requiring educational support has grown from an estimated 75 million in 2016 to 222 million today.
When humanitarian crises arise, like armed conflict or natural disasters, children are particularly vulnerable to threats. Stress and deprivation during the crucial years between birth and age eight may lead to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional difficulties in later childhood and into their adult lives. Early childhood interventions in crisis settings provide the opportunity for children to thrive and imagine a future beyond those circumstances.
Nishu and Amin, two five-year-old Rohingya students from the center, love school because in it they can learn while playing.
For Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazar, education is a critical first step toward normalcy and a way to move forward, despite being in flux as displaced people without citizenship rights, and unable to return home.
The LEGO Foundation funding is helping ECW to continue providing safe spaces for refugee children like Moni and Amin so they can heal from what they have witnessed, and gain access to critical services and care.
Access to education is a right for every child. Play gives refugee children a chance to learn about the world around them and to see themselves as part of it.
Your actions are helping ensure that — start taking action today by downloading the Global Citizen app or heading to our website to take action.