Learning in Exile: Rohingya mother tongue education and the refusal of cultural genocide

Decades of state violence have suppressed Rohingya written language, completely fracturing their children’s education. This blog highlights the movement to fight this cultural erasure. Reflecting on the ‘Learning in Exile’ event at London’s Wiener Holocaust Library, we look at how activists and NGOs are using the written Hanifi script to bring linguistic justice and mother-tongue schooling to Rohingya refugees.

The genocide against the Rohingya in 2017 forced more than 700,000 people to flee Myanmar to Bangladesh. Now, more than a million Rohingya live in overcrowded and impoverished conditions in Kutupalong in Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world. Their education has not simply been interrupted; it has been completely fractured. For generations, the education of Rohingya children has been shaped by state violence, displacement and by policies that overlook how learning happens. 

At the heart of this problem is the fact that the Rohingya language has long been excluded from education. Generations of harsh restrictions from Myanmar’s government have prevented Rohingya from developing a written language – an overwhelming majority of Rohingya are unable to write in their native tongue. In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees are also prevented from learning the state language of Bengali, blocking vital access to social and economic opportunities and therefore the potential for Rohingya to integrate into their host country. Instead, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are expected to learn Burmese, the language of their oppressors, which many teachers in the refugee camps are not themselves proficient in. 

The future of Rohingya learners, both in Kutupalong and around the world, depends on creating an education system that values their rich language and cultural heritage. Learning, here, is not only about imparting knowledge – it is about supporting a sense of belonging, agency and the possibility of futures not defined by displacement.

There is reason for hope. In the 1980s, a Rohingya scholar, Mohammad Hanif, developed a written script – called Hanifi – for the Rohingya to allow people to express themselves in their own language and support more meaningful learning. Now, Muhammad Noor, a Rohingya social campaigner and founder of the Rohingya Language Council, has created a Unicode-approved Hanifi Rohingya font to support the wider use of written Rohingya, including in textbooks, websites, and other learning materials. This is having a profound impact in promoting home language education for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and beyond. 

Noor’s inspiring vision to preserve and promote the Rohingya language is an act of resisting and refusing cultural genocide. This was a driving theme of a recent exhibition and discussion event, ‘Learning in Exile’, held at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, which we reflect on in this short piece.

Refusing cultural genocide

Cultural genocide refers to the intention to eliminate or assimilate a group’s symbols, institutions and expressions of identity. As scholars have argued, for all its transformative possibilities, education has been complicit in cultural genocide; education has been used by colonial and post-colonial states to systematically deny and replace a group’s cultural knowledge. The restriction or banning of a group’s language is one way in which cultural genocide can be perpetrated, given that it prevents the transmission and reproduction of culture and heritage to future generations.

During the Learning in Exile exhibition and discussion, Mohammad Noor explained the impact of cultural genocide against the Rohingya and how his advocacy and innovation are actively resisting it by creating new educational infrastructures for Rohingya language and cultural learning. His creation of the Rohingya Hanifi Unicode font has enabled Rohingya-language textbooks to be written and used in schools in Kutupalong. The Rohingya-Hanifi digital keyboard has enabled Rohingya of all ages across the world to communicate with each other in their home language through computers and mobile devices. 

Digitising the Hanifi script is a part of a larger vision to refuse the cultural genocide against the Rohingya. Noor is working on creating a digital platform for stateless Rohingya, using the Hanifi script to: document and archive community histories and cultural knowledge; create Rohingya language learning opportunities and educational capacity building; and build a platform for Rohingya across the world to exchange knowledge and resources – sustaining communities into the future. Across this important work is the recognition, promotion and teaching of the Rohingya language that is so crucial to supporting linguistic justice in education.

Learning in Exile: linguistic justice and education

Researchers and NGOs are working to support linguistic justice for Rohingya refugees. 

The University of East Anglia, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences and supported by Refugee Crisis, has developed assessment tools in the Rohingya mother tongue to identify the prevalence of language and communication disorders among children with special needs, including those with hearing impairments and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Using a mother-tongue approach is essential for these communities, as it helps prevent social exclusion while supporting children’s cognitive and language development. Introducing Rohingya into clinical assessments also empowers the community by enhancing health literacy, raising awareness of the needs of children with special needs, and contributing to their overall well-being.

In Kutupalong, Children on the Edge is the primary NGO supporting mother tongue education for Rohingya refugees. Working with the Rohingya community in Bangladesh since 2010, the organisation has continually adapted to ensure access to meaningful education for thousands of children in the refugee camp. Following a pilot Rohingya language education programme, where children learning in their own language performed 78% better than those learning in Burmese, Children on the Edge received government permission to roll out the initiative to over 5,000 more students. They are now advocating for the broad-scale adoption of their Rohingya language education model across the wider education sector in the camp, so that 330,000 Rohingya children can finally learn in their mother tongue.  

The Global Action for Racial Justice in Education (GARJE) project recognises that challenging linguistic oppression is essential for racial justice. GARJE is conducting arts-based research in Kutupalong, in collaboration with Children on the Edge, to explore how it feels for Rohingya children, teachers and parents to learn in their home language and express themselves using the Hanifi script. Through this work, the project hopes to explore the possibilities for reparative education through linguistic dignity and justice.

The SYNU Platform is a decentralised digital hub dedicated to advancing the rights, dignity, and inclusion of millions of stateless Rohingya worldwide. It nurtures a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem that empowers community participation, preserves the Rohingya language and cultural heritage, and strengthens identity, education, and collective resilience. By fostering cultural preservation and digital empowerment, it helps build a more sustainable, connected, and hopeful future for one of the world’s most marginalised communities.