Almost 4,000 students in Arakan State absent as matriculation exams begin

By DMG 31 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
31 March 2022, Sittwe

As matriculation exams began on Thursday, 3,847 students in Arakan State failed to show up at their designated testing locations, the head of the state’s education office told DMG.

A total of 45,600 students registered to sit the exam in Arakan State, but only 41,753 students — 18,676 male and 23,077 female — just under 92% of registered students, took the exam on the first day.

“The number of absentees was highest in Sittwe District,” said U Ba Htwe Sein, the head of Arakan State’s education office. “Students from other districts also failed to take the exam. Among them might be internally displaced students.”

According to the Arakan State Education Department, 1,175 students from Sittwe District; 912 students from Mrauk-U District; 865 students from Kyaukphyu District; 507 students from Thandwe District; and 387 students from Maungdaw District failed to take the exam.

“It is normal to have a few thousand absentees among such a large number of students registered for the exam. And Arakan State has the highest number of students taking the exam,” U Ba Htwe Sein told DMG. “I am happy that there was no unusual incident today.”

Across Arakan State’s 17 townships, more than 100 testing centres were opened for this year’s matriculation exam. Twenty exam centres were relocated to urban areas out of security concerns, making it difficult for some students from internally displaced camps to take the exam, their parents told DMG earlier this month.

“We have had to pawn our possessions to send my children to the urban exam centre to take the exam. We have no income as we stay at the ID camp. But the education of our children is important,” said Daw Sein Ma Khin of Taung Min Kalar IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State.

Schools were closed across the country for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and were only reopened in November of last year. U Ko Ko Gyi, head of the Ann Township education office, said teachers could not cover the full curriculum because there was not enough time.

“For example, in English, there are 14 chapters, and we only taught eight chapters to meet the deadline,” he explained.