Why are Students Fleeing the Burmese Education System?
By Saw Ehna and C. Guinard
In military ruled Burma, parents are strug
gling everyday to afford basic education for
their children. This is true in urban areas but the situation is even more acute in rural ethnic regions of Burma. As a consequence, many young ethnic people from southern and eastern Burma face the only option of leaving their homeland to seek education in refugee camps located on the Thai-Burma border.
Thelay, 16, an ethnic Karen student living in Tenasserim division, southern Burma told us her family’s story. Thelay’s grandmother has lived all her life in rural Tenasserim where she raised Thelay when her parents died. She is old now and needs to eat healthy, protein rich food, however this is just too expensive. She spends all her money on extortion by Burmese soldiers and above all trying to educate her granddaughter. Thelay pitied her grandma but felt helpless. She wanted to study very much but school fees are just too high for Burma’s rural villagers like them. To overcome this impasse, there is only one option. “If I go to the refugee camp, I will be able to continue my study. If I don’t go, I am sure that I have to quit,” Thelay said.
Thelay studied until grade nine in Ashidgone, in Palaw township of Tenasserim division. She is among many Karen and Tavoyans students whose parents cannot afford high school for their children. This is due partly because of the high number of school fees parents are requested to pay but also as this population is riddle by poverty for five decades of civil war and military rule.
So, in May 2005, Thelay along with 29 students from southern Tavoy town walked through war torn jungle to reach the Thai border. Some of them endured this dangerous trip to attend school in a refugee camp and others to find a work in Thailand.
If I go to the refugee camp, I will be able to continue my study. If I don't go, I am sure that I have to quit
Naw Eh, 17, student in grade nine, accompanied Thelay to the Thai border. She is now going to school in Htam Hin refugee camp. “In Burma, we had to pay for many things in our village and one day my mother told me that she could not send me to school anymore. So, when I met people traveling to the border, I followed them,” Naw Eh said. Like many other villagers in this rural area, Naw Eh’s parents are farmers earning their living from betel nut and cashew nut plantations.
Naw Eh said that among her friends who recently arrived to the border, many of them went to Thai’s towns to work because they don’t have any relatives to depend on. For these people, access to higher education is now only a doomed dream.
Indeed in recent years, an increasing number of students, like Naw Eh, Thelay and their friends from Tenasserim division, living either in Burma army controlled areas or forced relocation sites in southern Burma, reach refugee camps to study, while many finally end up on Thai fishing boats, in factories or service labour.
According to an official from the Karen insurgent group -the Karen National Union (KNU)- since the beginning of 2005, they have registered more than 400 young people from south of Tavoy who have crossed to Thailand at the KNU check point. This is only one of many routes that people can use.
The same phenomenon is happening in Karen State in eastern Burma where a rising number of students are fleeing Burmese Army controlled areas and free-fire zones to study in refugee camps. Thera Htoo Thaw, who is in charge of a boarding school in Mae Ra Moe Luang refugee camp in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province said about 100 students from Nyaung Lin Bin district came to study this year.
And there will be more to come. Villagers from Nyaung Lin Bin district are facing deteriorating living conditions since the last Burma army offensive in the region in November-December 2004. At that time, thousands of rice stocks were destroyed and villagers are now facing food shortage. Schools were constantly interrupted and many students were forced to study on the run. Many just stopped going to school to help their family in the field.
An educational NGO worker from the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR) based in Mae Ra Moe Luang camp said that last year they registered about 900 students from Karen State who came to study in the camp. Sadly, for many Karen students inside Burma, refugee camps scattered along the Thai border symbolize the only hope for education.
According to a recent report released by the All Burma Federation Student Unions (ABFSU), “there are four main reasons for the current poor level of education in ethnic areas, and they are: (a) Relocation; (b) Language1; (c) Lack of investment by the government and (d) Forced Labour and Child soldiers.”2
Indeed, lack of investment in education is obvious, especially when looking at UNICEF general statistics on Burma. According to the UN agency, Burma’s ruling regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), allocates 29% of central government expenditure to Defence but only 8% on Education (1992-2004). Owing to such a budget policy, Burma’s education system is the least efficient in the whole of Southeast Asia.
There are 39,000 publicly run primary schools throughout Burma, giving an average of one school for every two villages in Burmese dominated regions. But, according to a report published in 2003 by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, in ethnic border areas, there may only be one school for every 25 villages. Just 46% of these are equipped with sanitation, and as little as 17% receive drinking water. In relocation sites where many villagers are forced to move by the military, education is pretty much nonexistent. If a system of education is set up, parents are required to pay the full cost of schooling. However, facing various additional extortions from the army, and frequently subject to forced labour, parents living in relocation sites can rarely support their children’s education at all.
If we listen to SPDC propaganda, public education should be free in Burma. But, in reality, even outside of relocation sites, parents have to contribute not only financially but also physically. In rural communities, most of the schools are built by parents. Teachers are hired by them as well. Villagers are also often forced to pay for the expenses of the building of government schools.
According to Thelay and her friends, they even have to pay for the teacher’s children milk, expenses covering army officers’ visits and a host of other things related to the running of the school. They estimated that one student had to pay at least 104,000 kyat (102.26 US$) to 200,000 kyat to pay for school enrollment fees, examination fees, text books, tuition and other expenses including the school’s sanitation. Naw Eh noted, “because of my schooling, my parents’ debt was over 30,000 kyat.”
But students are not only rushing out of Burma because of high school fees; they are also trying to escape a poor quality level of teaching. In ethnic areas, high qualified and experienced teachers are rare. Educational staff are still trained with conservative and traditional teaching methods, and often lack of motivation because of very low salaries (between 4,500 to 10,000 kyat per month). According to a middle school teacher living in Tenasserim division, she is only paid 7000 kyat a month. After paying Burmese authorities for sports fees, calendar fees, and others taxes, only 3000 kyat is left at the end. This amount has to cover expenses for poor quality rice, other basic foods and clothing.
To the detriment of the children’s education, teachers have to find additional ways to survive. Thus, they often organize extra classes at night or during weekends to get additional incomes. The children who cannot afford to attend are often disadvantaged.
Naw Ler Htoo, 18, who also came to the camp with Thelay said she used to participate in extra classes in two subjects: English and mathematics. She attended from Monday to Friday at 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM. One month she had to pay 700 kyat for each subject. “In Burma if you don’t get these extra-classes, you will not pass the exam and the teachers don’t like you. Most of them earn their living by teaching extra-classes,” she said.
Approximate Expenses for a Student in Grade Eight or Nine
Bording fees per year = 12,000 to 90,000 Kyat (food not included)
Textbook per year = 2,500 to 5,200 Kyat (second hand book), 6,000 (new book)
Notebook (for one year about 6 to 7 dozen). Cost per dozen = 1,800 Kyat
School Enrolment Fees = 32,000 up to 100,000 Kyat
Pens and Pencil (for one year, around 40 to 50) = 150 - 200 Kyat
Night Class per month = 4,000 Kyat
Extra Class (Saturday) per month = 2,000 Kyat
Monthly Examination Fees = 100 Kyat and up
Sports Fee per month = 150 Kyat
Garbage bag fee per month = 150 Kyat
Funeral, teacher's children milk per month = 100 Kyat
"Pwe", Burmese tradiional show, one ticket = 450 Kyat
SP{DC officer visit (per visit) = 500 Kyat
School Building = around 5,000 Kyat from each student
School uniform (three pairs) = 9,000 Kyat
There are stil many other expenses such as closing school ceremony, food, transfer of the teachers, chairs, tables, sanitation, etc. Cost can also vary from area to area. The daily wage in Burma is about 800 Kyat (0.78 US$)
She also described the kind of additional hardship students have to face on regular basis. “Every time when SPDC officials came to visit the area, the school asked for 500 kyat from each student for their feast. When I studied in Palauk, I had to go and work for SPDC Infantry Battalion 280 to clear their helipad and construct buildings. We were also asked to welcome the soldiers with flowers, clear monasteries and plant paddy.”
Naw Wut Ye Mway, 17, a Tavoyan student in grade nine, said that she attended extra class from 6 PM to 9 PM every evening and had to give 4000 kyat per month. For Saturday class she paid 2000 kyat per month. She said, “in normal class, teachers just teach loosely, but during extra class they do their best. In my school, during exam, we cheat by writing on paper, feet and hands. Some teachers also give exam questions to the students they adored.”
She estimated that her education cost around 140,000 kyat per year. “My brothers and sisters said to me that I just spent money for nothing because it cost a lot. My mother has to pay various fees in the village. Every year she got into debt and she cannot pay back even she worked really hard with a little rest.”
“For students in Burma, if their parents are not rich, most of them will get into debt. I decided I will not return to Burma unless the situation has changed.”
Endnotes:
The SPDC uses education as a political tool in the "Burmanisation" of ehtnic regions of Burma. In all Burma's schools, it is forbidden to study ethnic languages
Year 2004 - Education Report, Foreign Affairs Committee, All Burma Federation of Students Unions, February 2005
If I go to the refugee camp, I will be able to continue my study. If I don't go, I am sure that I have to quit
