Terms of Reference (ToR)
for
‘Mapping Barriers to and facilitators of Access to Education for the children with disabilities in the FDMN camp and host community context in Cox’s Bazar’
PD-UKHI-01095

1. Background

Bangladesh generously hosts close to one million FDMN/ Refugees from Myanmar, making it one of the largest protracted refugee situations in the world. Following the influx in 2017, the humanitarian community closely worked with the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to respond to the humanitarian needs caused by the large-scale displacement. FDMN/ refugees are hosted in 33 highly congested camps in Cox’s Bazar District.

PWG-REACH age & disability assessment report, 2021, stated that about 12% of the FDMN/ population in the camps suffer from varying degrees of disabilities;

  • 2% of children ages 2 - 4 and 3% of children ages 5 - 17 are children with disabilities.
  • Significantly lower proportions of children with disabilities than children without disabilities were found to have been enrolled in formal and informal learning centers
  • Overall, 65% of children with disabilities aged 5 to 9 had reportedly attended temporary learning centers (TLCs) for at least 4 days a week.
  • Overall, 59% of boys with disabilities aged 5 to 14 were reported as having been enrolled in TLCs, compared to 82% of girls with disabilities of the same age group.

In the development context, persons with disabilities face multiple barriers - such as access to services, education, information, communication and participation which is also true for the persons with disabilities among the FDMNs in Cox’s Bazar. According to the REACH report (May 2021), 64% of persons with disabilities (aged 15 and above) face barriers accessing various services in the camps. REACH study, 2021 also stated that 56% of the respondents do not have access to assistive devices. The main barriers of persons/ children with disabilities in the protracted context are -

There are over 400,000 school-aged FDMN/ children in the Bangladesh FDMN camps. With approximately 300,000 of these children attending learning centres, through 3,400 learning centres across multiple camps. Among them only 2,953 children with disabilities have been enrolled in the learning centers. There are many reasons to get a smaller number of children with disabilities in the learning centers –

  • Service providers’ limited knowledge on the identification of children with disabilities.
  • Lack of accessible educational environment, including LCs.
  • Lack of inclusive pedagogical skills and materials among educators due to lack of training and support systems in place.
  • Negative attitudes of peers, and negative attitudes of teachers and community.
  • Limited data and evidenc

Mentor/Consultants that meet the requirements should submit an expression of interest by 30/04/2024.

Click here to view details ToR