Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam, Joint Secretary, Development, at the Bangladesh Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Nesar Ahmed, acting Head of Operations and Sub office for UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, and head of BRAC Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme Mohammed Abdus Salam will attend.

The eye-catching building, painted bright red and yellow, will be able to house up to 240 students studying in two classrooms in three shifts each day - double the number of students who could normally attend a TLC within the physical space.   

The design was created by two associate professors at BRAC University’s architecture department, using local materials and technology, UNHCR said on Tuesday.   

Across all the refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar, there are 540,000 children of school age (aged 3-24 years old) but only 160,552 have spaces in temporary learning centres, leaving a gap of 47% of youngsters aged 3-14 years-old without any access to education, and more than 97% of 15-24 year olds not attending any educational facilities.

Director of BRAC’s education programme Dr Safiqul Islam said the two-storied design combats the space crisis in the camps. 

“The culturally-sensitive design allows for a more learning enabling environment to ensure higher quality education. It is environment-friendly, and its construction and operation will not cause any further damage to the environment. It is also designed for purpose, and can be modified and relocated at any time”.

UNHCR’s education officer James Onyango said this is a creative and innovative way to tackle one major problem we face in the camps – inadequate physical space to guarantee access to educational opportunities for youngsters.

The pilot project brings to 39 the number of TLC’s that UNHCR has established with BRAC in 20 different locations in Camp 4 and 17 since May 2018.