Enrolment week slated for end of May as uncertainty hangs over coming academic year

By DMG 06 May 2021

DMG Newsroom
6 May 2021, Sittwe 

Basic education schools across Myanmar will accept enrolment as of May 24, said Arakan State education officer U Tin Thein. 

The Education Ministry’s Basic Education Department sent a directive on Monday indicating that enrolment would run from May 24 to May 31. 

“Students will not have to pay any fee to enrol. The education is free. Students will be provided with free textbooks, notebook, pencils, pens and so on,” he said.   

Signboards informing parents of school enrolment will be put up in front of the Arakan State, Sittwe District and township education offices on Friday, he added. 

The Education Ministry has also issued an order to reopen basic education schools on June 1 in line with COVID-19 rules and regulations, said U Tin Thein. 

“Previously, we were instructed to keep students 6 feet apart in classrooms. Now, students are instructed to stay 4 to 6 feet away from one another. We will check the classrooms in line with the 34-point [COVID-19] health requirements,” he said. 

U Aung Kyi Moe, the father of a student in Sittwe, said he would send his children to school to prevent them from losing educational opportunities. 

“As a parent, I don’t want my children to have their education disrupted,” he said. “There have been calls for boycotting the education system under the military. But children were taught from the same textbooks under the democratic government. In Arakan State, many children could not go to school due to the fighting. These factors must also be considered.”  

Idle minds can become the devil’s workshop if children are kept away from schools, he said. 

The military regime’s push to reopen schools is facing growing resistance, however, with anti-regime protesters calling for an education boycott as part of the nationwide civil disobedience movement against the junta.