KHRG: Interviews on the School Situ

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Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:04:12 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: KHRG: Interviews on the School Situation

INTERVIEWS ON THE SCHOOL SITUATION

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
May 10, 1996     /     KHRG #96-16


The following accounts were given in interviews in early May 1996 with a 
schoolteacher from Karen State and a student from Mon State.  Their 
names have been changed and some personal details omitted to protect 
them.  For other information on the school situation, see also "The 
Situation of Children in Burma" (KHRG 1/5/96), "Abuses in Tee Sah 
Ra Area" (KHRG #96-15, 1/4/96), "Field Reports: Mergui-Tavoy 
District" (KHRG #95-25, 29/7/95), and others.

TOPIC SUMMARY: Extortion for school-building (Interview #1), school 
fees (#1,2), textbooks (#1,2), school corruption (#2), threats against 
teachers/parents if students get involved in politics (#2), Burman-only 
curriculum (#2), dropout rate (#1,2),  child conscription into the Army 
(#1), Ye Nyunt Youth (#1), USDA (#1), human rights in Thaton (#2).
_____________________________________________________________________________

#1.

[The following is excerpted from an independent interview with a former 
schoolteacher conducted on 2 May 1996.  She also discussed the general 
human rights situation, and her comments can be found in "The Situation 
in Pa'an District", KHRG #96-17, 15/5/96.]

NAME:   "Naw Paw Wah"   SEX: F   AGE: 36    Karen Buddhist schoolteacher

I served as a teacher in Kawkareik.  I resigned last year and moved to Pa'an, 
and after that to Irrawaddy Division.  What I have seen is that the whole 
people have to work all the time doing "voluntary labour".

Q:  What about SLORC and the rights of children?
A:  No, SLORC cares nothing about children or their education.  I will 
explain how people have to set up a school.  First the villagers have to 
collect money, two-thirds of the school construction cost, and then SLORC 
provides one-third [note: even this one-third has usually been extorted by 
the Army from nearby villages].  Then at the opening ceremony of the new 
school, the whole group of Ma Wa Ta [Township LORC, SLORC's local 
administration] comes and gives many speeches.  This is usual in our 
country.  Years ago people were happy to get a new school, but now 
because of the bad economy and no income, people worry about getting a 
new school.  Also, parents' goals for their children have changed.  The 
parents know that their children will not get jobs if they finish school.  I 
have seen many parents withdraw their children at primary school level.  
Children have to help their family, and some go to Thailand [to make 
money].

There are no primary school fees, but students' textbooks are not distributed 
so students have to buy a set of textbooks on the black market by paying 
2,000 Kyats.  Middle school and high school textbooks cost much more.  
So teachers try to arrange to re-use the old used books.  Students also have 
to pay school maintenance fees of 500 Kyats, "table and bench fees" of 
1,000 Kyats per year, broom, waterpot and drinking-cup fees, and fees for 
many funds such as sports, religious ceremonies and concerts.  [The 
teacher must collect all these fees and hand them over to the SLORC 
Township Education department.]  Middle school students are required to 
pay 15 Kyats per month for school fees.  Every school in Karen State 
collects 15 Kyats per month, including summer holiday months.

One day each month, primary school students receive food such as boiled 
rice and  boiled milk, but parents have to pay money for that, and each 
student also has to bring 3 pieces of wood for fuel.  [The reason for this 
activity is so that SLORC can show it in the media.]  In big towns, high 
school students can learn computers.  State High School No. 2 in Pa'an 
received 4 computers early this year, 1996 [this was also shown in the 
media].  Then each high school student had to pay 1,000 Kyats towards the 
computers, and middle school students had to pay 500 Kyats each.  There 
are about 700 high school students in State High School No. 2 [about 50 
students per class and 7 classes in each of 9th standard and 10th 
standard].  Rich merchants were also ordered to donate 3,000 Kyats each 
toward the 4 new computers.  [The 700,000 Kyats from the high school 
students alone is worth US$6,000 at market exchange rate; SLORC 
authorities have obviously made a lot of money by providing these 
computers.]  I don't know how they will teach computer lessons, but for 
this year they are just collecting money and no computer lessons are being 
provided for the students.

There are some rehabilitation centres ["training schools"] at Hnat-Au-San 
and at Thayet town, which the Army uses for recruits.  The Army also 
trains young children known as "Ye Nyunt" organization and recruits them 
[Ye Nyunt means "Brave Youthful Potential"; there are also reports from 
northern Burma that SLORC tells parents to enroll their children in Ye 
Nyunt to get free education, then drafts them into the Army].  Orphans and 
poor children are also collected and kept in camps, then later they go in the 
Army.

As for USDA [Union Solidarity and Development Association], students 
and others join to get opportunities.  For example, in TV quiz shows and 
contests, only USDA members win prizes.  I saw the Jubilee quiz show on 
TV Myanmar's Myawaddy channel, and a girl gave a lot of wrong answers 
but she won the prize because she is a USDA member.
_____________________________________________________________________________

#2.

[The following account was given by a student who just finished high school 
in Thaton Town, Mon State.]

NAME:   "Kyaw Hla"        SEX: M    AGE: 20     Mon Buddhist student
FAMILY: Single, parents still alive             INTERVIEWED: 6/5/96

I grew up in Moulmein.  I went to primary school in Moulmein, then to 
middle school and high school in Thaton.  I am in 10th Standard.  I am 
waiting for the results from my exams.  Then I'll attend university in 
Moulmein.  But first I have to wait for my exam results, and then I have to 
wait one year because there are so many students.  I can't get the money 
myself, so my parents will have to support me to go to university.  In 
Thaton I stay with my grandparents and go to school by bicycle.

Q:  Can you describe the situation at your high school?
A:  The situation varies.  Some of the teachers are good and some are bad.  
The bad teachers don't care about the students.  They don't prepare and 
when they give a lesson, whether the students understand or not they 
explain in only a few words, and as soon as the time is up they leave the 
class.  There are two kinds of students in Burma: students who just go to 
school in the daytime, and students who go to school in the daytime and 
then go to tuition [hire a tutor] in the evening.  The teachers at school 
don't like the students who go to tuition in the evenings, they don't want 
to teach us.

Some of the teachers are always looking for money.  The teachers are very 
biased toward people who have money.  If you know that you failed your 
exam, you give bribe money to the teacher and you'll definitely pass the 
exam.  People who have money can easily pass 10th Standard because of 
money, but people who are good students and try hard can fail the exam 
because of a bad teacher.  If we know ourselves that we have failed, we try 
to give the money to one of the teachers who knows us.  To pass all the 
exams for one student, you give them about 10,000 Kyats.  The 10th 
Standard exam comes from the SLORC [it is not set and marked locally 
like most other Standards], so the teacher must use their contacts to the 
people who correct the exams.  If you give 30,000 Kyats to the one teacher 
who's going to help you, you'll know for sure that you pass.  The students 
who come from hill village schools, they don't know the situation about how 
you pass - they only think that if they try hard they will pass.  So they 
don't give bribes to the teachers and then the teachers don't help them to 
pass and cruelly give them low marks.  The students who live in towns, they 
know how to pass, how to be friendly with the teachers and give them plenty 
of money.

Being clever is not enough to pass the exams, because there are so many 
kinds of teachers.  Some people who try very hard, before the results they 
already know that they did well and passed, so they stay happily and enjoy 
their lives.  But the teacher sees that and thinks they are proud, so on the 
exam they mark even the correct answers as incorrect, and give them a 
mark like 35%.  A pass is 40%.  The others who try hard, act respectfully 
and friendly to the teacher and pay the bribes are in good shape to pass.  
About 80% of the students pay the bribe money.  They are mostly from 
rich families in the towns.  I had to pay.  Money is everything these days, 
and strange things are happening among students.

Most of the students are the children of rich families and leaders, so they 
are able to pay this much money.  If you go to special school in Rangoon 
like the children of doctors and Generals, you have to pay 3,000 Kyats per 
month school fees.  For us, we are in a State school so we pay less, 300 
Kyats for the year, 6 Kyats per month for fees as well as other fees.  
Primary and middle school students also have to pay fees, starting at KGC 
level [the first year of primary school; first their is KGC, then KGB, then 
KGA, then 1st Standard and so on].  Their fees are 20 Kyats per year for 
each student, but they don't have to pay the monthly fee.  They also have to 
buy their textbooks.  The government price for one primary textbook is up 
to 10 Kyats, but not all the students get their books from the government 
because there aren't enough.  If the government price is 10 Kyats, it will be 
75 or 80 Kyats on the black market.  In Thaton most children go to school, 
and most of them finish primary school at least - that means up to 4th 
Standard.  The children from hill villages only go to school until 4th 
Standard.

There are 3 high schools in Thaton Township - I go to xxxx high school.  
High school is 9th and 10th Standards.  There are six classes in each 
Standard, and about 45 students in each class.  Our high school has 9 
teachers.  They teach Burmese, English, Math, Science, Physics, History ... 
they teach only in Burmese, but some subjects like Science they teach in 
English.  About 45% of the students are Karen, 35% Pa'O, 25% Burmans, 
and only about 10% are Mon.  There is no chance to study our own 
language and culture.  The teachers are Burman, Karen, Pa'O and Mon, so 
we can speak our own language to each other.

Students do not learn politics, though at 9 a.m. we have to sing the Union 
song and then we have to salute.  Our parents have to sign a paper that once 
the student arrives in the school they have to obey the school rules and not 
talk back to the teachers.  It also says that the students must not be 
involved in or talk about politics.  Teachers and parents have to sign this 
paper.  If you betray your promise, the headmaster has to resign his position 
and another headmaster must come to control the school.  If the students do 
anything serious politically against SLORC, then as they say, "if the 
children are bad, it betrays the parents' name", so the police will come to 
the parents and they could be arrested and sent to prison.  This never happens 
in my school, because they do their best to control us as much as possible.  
Every week at the assembly, the headmaster gives a speech to the students 
telling us not to do this, not to get involved in politics.  Still, we talk 
about politics.  Some of our friends are the children of soldiers or officers, 
and we make them angry by saying bad things about their fathers.  We are not 
angry, only joking, but sometimes we get into fistfights about it.  These 
political rules are for middle school and high school.  There are no politics 
in primary school.

Q:  What is the general situation in Thaton?
A:  For porter fees, etc. we have to pay 100 Kyats per month.  In Thaton 
Township, supposing if they want to build a canal, then they call the 
villagers and we must go.  If we don't go we have to hire someone to go in 
our place.  You must go, you can't avoid it.  There are 2 canals in Thaton, 
and everyone has to dig 10 feet each.  They are canals for farm irrigation.  
They have rainy season crops and summer crops.  The farmers have to 
plant these crops - they have to pay a fine if they don't.  They also have to 
pay part of the crop if they do.  And they can't plant whatever they like - 
if SLORC says they must plant paddy, then they can't plant beans.  They 
must give at least a third of their crop, and for this the SLORC only gives 
them a very low price.  In the market, if you sell 100 tins of rice you can 
get 40,000 Kyats.

Everyone also has to go for forced labour cleaning the military camp and 
clearing trees and bushes.  If they have road construction people must go 
for that too.  Students don't have to go, but their parents have to go.  My 
grandparents are both about 60, and my grandfather is still going for forced 
labour making roads and military camps.

People are struggling for their living, and many people from our [Mon] 
State are going to Thailand.  I would like to get a [University] degree.  I 
don't know what subject, because it depends on my marks.  After getting a 
degree, all we can do is become teachers.  You can't have high ambition or 
aim very high if you study in Burma.

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