IDP students in Arakan State need school supplies

By DMG 24 May 2022

DMG Newsroom
24 May 2022, Sittwe 

With the opening of Myanmar’s public schools set for June 1, students from camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State need school supplies, according to camp officials and parents. 

Parents of IDP students find it difficult to get an education for their children, said Daw Hsan Khin, an IDP from Pyilone Chanthar displacement camp in Rathedaung Township. 

“We face difficulties buying school uniforms, stationery and umbrellas for our children,” she told DMG. “Children need two or three pairs of school uniforms, stationery, umbrellas, slippers and raincoats because it is the rainy season. Our jobs are not good so we cannot afford to buy necessary things for our children.” 

Some displacement camps are far from schools, so IDP students need more rain gear, parents said. 

“When the children walk to school during the rainy season, all their clothes get wet. Therefore, it is necessary for children to have enough umbrellas, raincoats and school uniforms. So far, no charitable organisation has made contributions to the displacement camp,” said U Kyaw Win, manager of Taung Min Kalarchaung IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township. 

Primary school children can learn at a school inside Mahamyatmuni IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township, but middle and high school students have to go to a high school in neighbouring Thayet Tapin village, more than two miles from the displacement camp. 

The floors and roofs of classrooms inside the camp still need to be repaired, said Ko Than Htay, an IDP from Mahamyatmuni IDP camp.  

In previous years, 97 percent of students in Arakan State attended school, but 30 percent of school-age children in IDP camps were unable to attend school due to financial hardship, according to a survey by the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC). 

The REC said its figures were an approximation as the number of students attending and dropping out of school this year was still being calculated.