The Super Kids of Kutupalong and the World that Failed Them

A Tribute to Rohingya Kids on World Refugee Day 2026

July is unforgiving in Cox’s Bazar. On the day of my visit, the temperature hovered around 35°C, but it felt like 40°C, thanks to climate change. As I entered the Kutupalong camp for a brief visit to a community school founded by refugee youth themselves, I was unprepared for what I would encounter. 

The classrooms were makeshift tents made of polythene sheets, plastic sacks, bamboo, and scraps of wood. There was no electricity, no lighting, and no fans. Overcrowding made it even worse, as there were three times as many students as the small room could reasonably hold. The air barely circulated. The unbearable heat from the sun outside and the excessive carbon dioxide from the crowd inside made breathing difficult. There were no trees nearby to give a little relief from the scorching heat. A narrow, open drain of gray water ran beside the school, and one could smell its highest level of pollution lingering in the air. 

Yet this is not the story of deprivation. It’s the story of the Super Kids of Kutupalong.

In conditions that would make most adults suffer, every kid I met in that community school was animated and unmistakably joyful. They rushed to talk to me, eager to recite the English alphabet, write numbers, and show off newly learned words. They displayed extraordinary will to learn. Their excitement was startling. However hostile and suffocating the environment was, they seemed grateful simply to be in a classroom. 

For these Super Kids, education is hope. They appeared hungrier for knowledge than for food, more excited for pens and pencils than for fans or fresh air. This is remarkable!  

Many of the children fled ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rakhine, Myanmar, by the military regime; others were born in exile, knowing no life beyond the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Development partners, including IOM Bangladesh, UNHCR, and some local and national NGOs, in coordination with the government of Bangladesh, have done what they can under extraordinary circumstances. Their efforts deserve kudos. 

But is this the future the world has chosen for these children? Where is their fundamental right to education? Why is there no outrage in the international community? How long will the world leaders continue playing their 5D geopolitical chess while these children are forced to learn in suffocating tents? There are no answers. There seems to be none in the near future. 

What I saw in the eyes of the Super Kids of Kutupalong was not despair but resilience.

If children can show such determination in such an adverse environment, the least the world can do is summon the backbone to act.