RANGOON—Aye Tun makes 70,000 kyat (US $86) per month as a Rangoon public bus driver and his wife makes about 40,000 kyat ($49) per month as a cleaning worker for the Township Public Municipal Department—barely enough to survive, let alone send their three children to school. “Even though I’m poor, I want my children to be educated. But in my financial position I can’t afford to send all of my three children to the public school,” said Aye Tun, a resident of Hlaing Tharyar Township. Burma’s 30-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan hasn’t met the needs of the people, although the plan was supposed to implement a system of compulsory and free education for all. According to parents with school-age children, monthly expenses for a student in the government-run school can range from 10,000—50,000 kyat, with the amount covering fees for school registration, books and stationary, sports, the library and a school fund. “The school registration fee and contribution to the school fund are one-time payments, but the amount can vary depending on the individual school. Book fees, exam fees and contributions to learning equipment are required to be made on a monthly basis and when needed . We had to buy school desk for our children as well,” said one parent in Pegu. A Burmese academic who serves as a consultant to the Government Basic Education Department said that because the government has made an insufficient budget allocation to the education sector, parents are forced to cover some needs of the schools. A professor working for a government educational training institute said that the government’s failure to adequately support the education sector has resulted in a lack of learning equipment, deficient teacher salaries, a financial burden on the students’ families and, most importantly, a large numbers of drop-outs by students from poor families who are unable to afford the fees. “Between approximately one million and two million children in Burma are unable to study because of their family’s economic hardship,” said Dr. Myo Tint, a retired deputy rector of the Institute of Education. According to official figures, Burma has 40,900 schools with over 8 million students and 274, 000 registered schoolteachers. Burma’s Ministry of Education allocates the education budget via its two main departments—the Department of Higher Education, which oversees 64 Colleges, Regional Colleges and Universities, and the Department of Basic Education, which runs more than 40,000 schools. Another 97 Universities, Regional Colleges and Technical Institutes are run under the 12 government ministries. The Burmese government claimed that it has spent 352,584 million kyat for the education sector, or 4.42 percent of total government spending. “For a poor family like us, the government-run schools are out of our reach. We have no choice but to take our children to monastic schools where they can receive a free education, free books, free school registration and free donations. So the monastery schools really help families like ours who face economic hardship,” said Ko Aye Tun. Because of parents like Aye Tun who still want their children to receive an education despite the rising costs of government-run schools, the number of monastic schools in Burma has grown since 2000. In his paper on “The role of Monastic Schools and Education in Burma,” Myo Tint said that over 200,000 students—or 16 percent of Burma’s school-age children—are studying at over 2,500 monastic schools. The paper said that monastic schools assist in providing important educational needs for poor children and play a significant role in Burma’s education sector. “We established a monastic school because we were worried that if the children didn’t get an education, they would become street kids or irresponsible adults. We think we should give them a chance to study,” said Sayadaw U Vilarsa, a founding monk of the Pyinnya Shwe Taung Post Primary Monastic School in Southern Zaiganai, Pegu. He said the school was started with nothing: no funding, no teachers, no desks and no blackboard. Now the school offers a place to study for 250 students from kindergarten to eighth grade, with 11 teachers. Cultural classes are also offered at the school under the guidance of the monks. “The monastic schools are primarily for those children who can’t attend the government run schools because their families are poor. Here we have no school registration fees. We take care of everything, including books, so many poor families can send their children to us. The number of monastic schools in Pegu is also increasing, as are the number of students,” said U Vilarsa. Pyinnya Shwe Taung Monastic School, founded in 2003, was the first such school established in Pegu, which had 27 monastic schools for the 2010-2011 school year. According a survey of monastic schools in the Rangoon Region for the 2010 – 2011 school year, there are 53 monastic schools in the 12 eastern townships, 23 monastic schools in the 9 western townships, 42 monastic schools in the 8 southern townships, and 55 monastic schools in the 8 northern townships. Because many school children are unable to bring their lunch to school, the monks have in the past prepared food for the students. But the influx of new students has now made that impossible. “Children in this place are really poor, so not every student could bring their own lunch. When the abbot of this monastery found out some kids had missed their lunch, he helped to give lunch for those kids who couldn’t bring their food. But since there has been a increasing the number of the students, he really couldn’t help anymore,” said a female teacher from Aung Parahita Monastic School in Hlaing Tharyar Township. Burma’s monastic education system dates back to the colonial era. It virtually disappeared around 1982, but reemerged in 1992 and has since filled an important educational need for Burma’s poor. The monastic schools are registered under the Ministry of Religious Affairs and include primary, secondary and high schools. Teachers at the monastic schools are not offered fixed salaries, and what they are paid varies depending on the school’s financial capacity. “Salaries for the teachers, accommodations and stationary for the students are funded from donations the monastery receives. So it is not really a salary, but pocket money for them,” said a monk from Aung Parahita Monastic School. Teachers working at the monastic schools are voluntarily contributing their services rather than making money. “We receive 20,000 Kyat per month from the abbot, which is not enough so we have to spend it wisely,” said a teacher at the Pyinnya Shwe Taung Monastic School. He said he started teaching at the monastic school when he retired from the government-run school. Due to the rise of commodity prices, the abbot increased their “salary” from 7,000 Kyat to 10,000 Kyat and then 20, 000 kyat, he said. The monastic schools are striving to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students each year, including the need for more teachers and school materials. “I’m aware that we have an insufficient number of teachers compared with the student population, but we can’t help it. We have given shelter for over 200 orphans and provided education for 1,200 students at our school. So we are facing many difficulties,” said a monk from Aung Zeya Min Monastic School in Hlaing Tharyar Township. Despite the difficulties, monastic education will continue to address the educational needs in Burma, according to members of the monastic school community. “I need to take my elder son to the government run school this year after the secondary school. But if the school fees remain high, that would be an insurmountable problem for poor people like us,” said Ko Aye Tun, who hopes the monasteries will provide secondary school education as well. |
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