Data system mapping of Cox’s Bazar education for Rohingya refugees and host community

This working paper highlights data's crucial role in shaping education policies in humanitarian settings such as Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. In Cox's Bazar, the Education Sector coordinates efforts across the various agencies that serve both Rohingya refugees and the host community, but the lack of adequate data hinders policy makers in their decision-making. Current research and understanding of this context often lacks a thorough evaluation of education data systems in humanitarian settings, which are often characterized by fragmented and inconsistent data across different actors in the Education Sector, and this requires closer examination. We used semi-structured interviews with 17 data managers from NGOs, international NGOs, and UN bodies to map data systems, identifying education data gaps in Cox's Bazar. Agencies in Cox's Bazar gather learners, teachers and education materials, provide information, and share aggregated information, yet data gaps exist in teacher and student assessments, learning outcomes, dropout tracking, and social-emotional learning. A lack of data-sharing policies leads to intervention duplication, while government data on education is collected by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) but not publicly shared. The findings highlight the necessity for standardized data collection and data-sharing policies to improve collaboration and decision-making within Cox's Bazar's education sector.