Universiti Sains Malaysia's Kamarulzaman Askandar says many older children are asked to look for jobs or to help their families at home.
Keeping Rohingya kids in school is hard. (AFP pic)
PETALING JAYA: Helping Rohingya children in Malaysia obtain an education is difficult, but keeping them in school is even harder for the founder of a learning centre for Rohingya refugees in Penang.
Kamarulzaman Askandar, who lectures at Universiti Sains Malaysia, told CNN that he faced many problems maintaining the Penang Peace Learning Centre, also known as the School of Peace.
Every month, he and his staff struggle to find the RM6,000 needed to run the school, which operates from a terrace house five days a week.
According to CNN, they also face complaints from residents who say the school is too noisy.
However, the biggest problem is dealing with the high dropout rate.
Kamarulzaman said older boys would be asked by their families to look for jobs, while older girls were asked to help the families at home.
The girls were also married off when they came of age, he told CNN.
Limitations in syllabus are also a concern, as the centre only teaches primary school subjects, which Kamarulzaman said gave older children little incentive to stay in school.
He and the centre’s three teachers can only offer the secondary school syllabus if they obtain the necessary funding and space.
Malaysia is home to more than 50,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers, many of whom work as labourers, hawkers and construction workers.
Over 600,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since a military crackdown last August.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority denied citizenship in Myanmar, have been escaping persecution in their mostly Buddhist homeland for decades but the latest exodus is said to be the worst in years.
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