About 80% of students at Arakan State’s largest monastic education school yet to receive Covid vaccine

By DMG 05 Nov 2021

DMG Newsroom
5 November 2021, Thandwe

Most students at Arakan State’s largest monastic school, Palay Yadanar in Thandwe, Arakan State, have not yet received the Covid-19 vaccine, according to school officials.

The school has more than 1,000 students from primary to high school ages, and only about 200 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to date, with school officials urging an accelerated effort to inoculate the rest of the student population.

“Teaching at the monastic education school is in accordance with the Covid-19 rules. However, of the more than 1,000 students, only about 200 have received the Covid-19 vaccine,” said U Aye Win, principal of the Palay Yadanar monastic education school.

Myanmar’s military regime reopened public, private and monastic education schools in Arakan State on November 1, and the health department has undertaken a vaccination campaign targeting students above 12 years of age.

“We have sent the list of students who have not yet been vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine to the health department,” said the abbot of the Palay Yadanar school.

The Palay Yadana monastic education school is the fourth-largest school of its kind in Myanmar, and has been open for more than a decade.

Basic education schools across Myanmar were temporarily closed on July 9 due to the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Basic education schools nationwide reopened on November 1 in accordance with virus-related regulations.

Of the 501,905 students in Arakan State, 331,950 had returned to school as of November 2, according to the state’s education office.