While Burma’s military government is busy blaming “greedy businessmen” for corrupting the country’s education system and ruining the moral character of today’s generation, scholars have been saying that it’s the authorities who are responsible.

“Matriculation examinations are an important test for the youths who will take over state duties in the future,” said Police Chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi in a press conference held last Tuesday. The businessmen, he said, sell micro-books containing answers for all subjects so students can cheat at the matriculation examinations currently being held across the country. 

State-run newspapers report that authorities recently arrested several businessmen who produced these small books for students to secretly take into exam rooms. The reports add that those arrested could be sentenced with up to seven years imprisonment along with a fine, representing the first significant action to have been taken by authorities.

It’s difficult to find a teacher on a university campus who is not corrupt.

“Cheating in exam rooms has been going on for a long time in our country,” said Dr Thein Lwin, a Burmese scholar based in Chiang Mai. “In fact, the whole education system is derailed.”

Question books for matriculation exams have become a prized commodity and are traded among students, teachers and brokers, though the prices are so high that only students from wealthier families can afford them.  

According to May Nyein, a senior lecturer of Dagon University, Rangoon, who fled the country last month, if a student wants to find out his grade in a matriculation exam, he has to pay 30,000 kyat (about US $33) in bribes per subject to the teacher who marks the paper. Moreover, if the student wants to pass the exam, the student has to pay 300,000 kyat ($330) per subject or 1.5 million ($1,650) for all subjects, said May Nyein. She continued by saying that high-ranking officials such as ministers, rectors, professors and registrars of universities are involved in the scandal.     

Besides matriculation exams, the lecturer added that students, before they enter the exam room, collect 300 to 500 kyat from each student for teachers who monitor the exam room. May Nyein said that teachers who monitor exams would expect to earn about 20,000 kyat from each session, based on a usual attendance of 50 students. In return, the teacher ignores any cheating going on. This situation is most common when university exams are held in high schools, the lecturer added.

“It’s difficult to find a teacher on a university campus who is not corrupt,” said May Nyein who is currently living in a Thai border town. In addition, she said that the government systematically destroys students by allowing them to indulge in any wrongdoings—even if that means crime.

“30 percent of the students are on drugs - some students even trade drugs - including amphetamines, and another 30 percent are gamblers,” she said. “The authorities know about all this but don’t take any action.”

May Nyein alleged that authorities allow students to do whatever they want, with the exception of engaging in political activities. “Students have been deliberately spoiled by the government and university authorities,” she said emotionally. 

However, the lecturer said, the authorities take action against students who publish booklets of poems or short stories. The authorities are afraid those publications will provoke political activities among students. She added that the education system is also being ruined by continuously changing curricula.

“The education system of our country is always being tested” added the scholar Dr Thein Lwin. “An education system should be implemented through inclusive discussion by not only authorities but also teachers, scholars and students.”      

Yet the junta’s Police Chief Brig-Gen blames the businessmen, warning them “to stay away from committing crimes that will ruin the students, who are the nation’s future.”