Fighting and travel restrictions force closure of some 50 schools in Arakan State

By DMG 08 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 September 2022, Sittwe

Renewed fighting and rising military tensions between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) have reportedly forced the closure of about 50 public schools in three Arakan State townships.

Around 38 schools in Maungdaw Township, 10 in Rathedaung Township and three in Mrauk-U Township have been temporarily closed. Some 28 schools from 10 villages in northern Maungdaw Township have been forced to close by fighting, according to school sources.

“We have arranged for displaced students to study at nearby schools,” said an officer of the Arakan State Education Office.

Nearly 200 students have been displaced in Maungdaw Township, taking shelter at monasteries and their relatives’ homes.

Ten more schools from six villages in southern Maungdaw Township have been closed as locals are being denied access to roads, said the officer.

“In southern Maungdaw, some parents do not send their children to school. Again, many teachers at those schools come from Maungdaw town. As they are not allowed to pass the checkpoints, they can’t get to their schools,” he said.

Most of the schools that have closed in Maungdaw are basic education primary schools, with only two being high schools.

In Rathedaung, around 10 schools have been closed temporarily in 10 villages, according to local civil society organisations. They are not officially closed by the Education Department, and rather have been shuttered because there are no students, said a charity worker from Rathedaung Township.

“Students have fled their villages along with their parents. When there are no students, teachers also do not come to the schools,” he said.

When asked by DMG, the chief of the Rathedaung Township Education Office, U Tun Shwe, said: “Principals have not reported to me about closures. Besides, I am in Naypyidaw.”

In Mrauk-U, residents from Kin Seik, Lekka, Waithali, Kalaka and other villages fled their homes following fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA near Lekka village last month. Some have returned to their villages, but villagers from at least three villages including Lekka and Kin Seik still can’t return to their villages, so schools there are closed.

A villager of Kin Seik said: “We still haven’t returned to the village. Some have only returned for a while [to check on their homes]. So, schools remain closed.”

Three Kin Seik villagers including a 4-year-old boy were killed and eight others were injured in a junta shelling on August 28.

More than 6,600 people have been recently displaced by fighting and military tensions in Maungdaw, Rathedaung, Mrauk-U and Chin State’s Paletwa townships, with the ranks of the displaced growing by the day.

After two years of fighting from late 2018 to November 2020, the Myanmar military and the AA reached an unofficial ceasefire. But the peace pact has appeared on the verge of total collapse for weeks amid months of escalating military tensions and a series of clashes between the two sides.