Karenni Thu
The current KySDP candidate, Maw Take, said he would make the request to promote private schools and local education expense if he wins the seat, as education in rural areas is still far from urban.
“Regard to the rural education and urban education, there is no road available in remote areas and people have to build their own. It is important to make sure that students in those areas can easily adapt or study at government schools when they enter or relocate or transfer to government schools. I want to try for it. There are two parts which we will work with state government if it can be implemented with them, and if not possible with them, we will work together with the Amyotha Hluttaw representatives. It would also be done with the procedures such as making proposal, requests with procedures to the union level,” he said.
Another point is that during the ceasefire agreement with the KNPP, there are some people who came back from the Thai border refugee camps to attend school.
Some came back with the government plan while some families came back with their own plan because it was not included in the government plan. Some have returned to their old homes with the help of relatives.However, U Htoo Chit, the executive director of the Education and Development Foundation (FED), said the government had not provided effective assistance to the returnees who were approved by both governments.
″In this state in temporary shelters for returnees, anyone can shelter there as no one live there. You can go and check it. No one lives in those houses built for returnees. Only buffalo and cows you can see there since they do not prepare enough land for returnees to farm.Another thing is that you don’t have the capital to invest in something else. In the beginning of repatriation, it would not be not enough by just giving food and shelter to refugees. I don’t think it works. I see it as it is ineffective as they could not effectively help the refugees,” he said.
Maw Take also added that the convenient curriculum or the program to support the returning students should be implemented when the students from refugee school relocate to government school.He said he would like to make such arrangements as a representative if he wins the seat.
“If the curriculum taught in the refugee camps differs from the curriculum taught on the Myanmar side, a special program should be put in place to facilitate examinations, if possible.It is required to arrange a special program in order the returning students to be able to adapt with the Myanmar education system. Some could be done at the state level while some could only be done at the Union Parliament level which he would like to work on it as a representative of Amyotha Hlttaw,” he said.
Htoo Chit said the students returning from refugee camp as well as suffering children from remote areas who are now studying in Seh Tow Ro school, Hpruso Township, Kayah State, are not allowed to attend the government schools since they are discriminated as the students who are from KNPP-sponsored school.
″It led to the fact that the students from Seh Tow Ro were not accepted at the government school. I think this intention is to cause the divisive in the state. They even disturb or make trouble to the youth and vulnerable children from Seh Tow Ro school with the reasons they (children) live in the school opened and sponsored by KNPP.”
We need many more schools like this to help raise students and children who are in difficulty and poverty in rural area. This is because there are still too many children in rural areas who have dropped out of primary school and are unable to continue their education.
The government’s lack of support for such schools is a major factor in the gap between rural and urban education in the state. Kayah State has a population of over 300,000, three-quarters of whom are rural.