Rural parents in Arakan State complain of plan to relocate some matriculation exam sites to urban areas

By DMG 09 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
9 March 2022, Sittwe

Parents are concerned about possible hassle after Myanmar’s military regime said that 20 matriculation exam centres will be moved to urban areas due to safety concerns.

Administering of the annual matriculation examination, also known as the university entrance exam, will begin nationwide on March 31. There will be 128 matriculation examination centres in Arakan State, and 20 of those centres in six townships — Minbya, Ann, Myebon, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung and Ponnagyun — have been deemed unsafe, with exam-taking at the sites to be relocated.

Assistant Director Dr. Tun Tun Thein of the Arakan State Education Office told DMG that the office has to coordinate with concerned departments because the matriculation exam is a national-level event, which can be administered only in the presence of police tasked with providing security.

“Police must be present in administering exams and taking out question papers. We can’t administer the exam if police are absent at an exam centre. We can’t say we can take responsibility on their behalf. We can’t take out and keep question papers unless police are present,” he told DMG.

Parents of students from rural areas said they would face financial difficulties having to transport their children to urban exam centres at a time when the cost of living, including fuel, has surged.

“We will have to rent a house if our children are to sit the exam at urban examination centres. And we will have to spend large sums on food considering the current food prices. And many parents are having financial hardship,” said U Hla Tun Tha of Thae Tet village in Ponnagyun Township.

“It would not cost a lot if our children could sit the examination at exam centres in nearby villages. In that case, we might not need to stay overnight and could send our children by boat. It will be hard for children from poor families to take the exam,” he added.

The regime’s plan to move several exam centres to urban areas has drawn criticism, in part, because some of the villages deemed unsafe are said to meet the purported security requirements.

“In our Pann Myaung village, we not only have a village police station, but the township and district police force can also provide security,” said teacher U Yan Nyein Aung from the basic education high school in Pann Myaung.

“There are eight examination centres in Minbya, and three of them are in rural villages such as Kanni, Minywa and Pann Myaung. And students from Kanni and Minywa are being allowed to sit the exam in their villages, and Pann Myaung alone is not being allowed,” he added. “We have collected signatures from students’ parents and submitted them to the state-level education office, but it has not responded yet.”

Dr. Tun Tun Thein said such local complaints would be made known to upper-level authorities.

“Some villages have reported that they have police stations. If local police can provide security, we will forward their reports to the concerned authorities. This is the only thing we can do,” said Dr. Tun Tun Thein.

A total of 49,183 students sat the matriculation exam in the 2019-20 academic year, and over 45,000 students have registered to take the exam this year, according to the Arakan State Education Office.