Ponnagyun Twsp villagers call for repair of school buildings destroyed by Cyclone Mocha

By Admin 10 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
10 October 2023, Ponnagyun

A high school in Kalarchaung Village, part of Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township — where a total of 356 students are studying — has not been repaired nearly five months after it was damaged by Cyclone Mocha, according to residents and teachers.

Out of three school buildings, two were effectively destroyed by the storm, which made landfall over Arakan State on May 14.

Students are having to attend classes in batches due to the unaddressed structural damages.

“Students are facing difficulty learning their lessons. It’s not convenient for students to study. We [educators] also have difficulties,” said Daw Win May Than, the school’s headmistress.

With two entire school buildings out of commission for months, space is a primary concern.

“We don’t need to go to school regularly because we have fewer classes. We only go to school three days a week. We don’t understand well what the teachers teach. We have many challenges to study our school lessons,” said Maung Tun Lai Nay, a Grade 11 student.

Parents of students are worried about the quality of their children’s education in the apparent absence of an effective repairs programme.

“We rely on this school for our children’s education. We cannot send our children to tuition classes. We are worried that our children are not good at reading and that when they get older, they will be education-poor,” said Daw Thidar Win, the parent of a student at the school.

According to the village administrator, the matter has been submitted to the township education officer’s office and the township General Administration Department, with a request to repair the school buildings damaged by Cyclone Mocha.

“We have presented a plan to repair the damaged school buildings to the township officials, but we haven’t received any response from them. The two main buildings of the school were destroyed, so the students cannot attend school full time and the study time is less,” said U Maung Kyaw Than, the administrator of Kalarchaung Village.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Ponnagyun Township education officer U Kyaw Han and Arakan State education officer U Ba Htwee Sein regarding the dire state of secondary education in Kalarchaung Village.

According to one tally, 1,538 out of 3,197 public schools were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Mocha across 10 townships in Arakan State.

More than 95 percent of cyclone-hit schools and higher education facilities have been repaired in Arakan State, the military council has claimed.