He made the announcement on 18 November in reply to a parliamentary question from Nan Moe Moe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Karen State Constituency-4, on whether the government intended to provide a budget for ethnic literature and culture classes in the summer.

Nai Thet Lwin said: “We warmly welcome ethnic people giving ethnic literature and culture classes during the summer vacation. We will make arrangements to allocate a suitable budget [for the ethnic literature and culture classes] in the budget of each state or regional government every year.”

He also said that there were difficulties working on ethnic affairs issues because state and regional governments had not included them in the budget proposals that they had submitted for the 2015 to 2016 and 2016 to 2017 fiscal years, even though the Ethnic Rights Protection Law had already been enacted.

In her question, Nan Moe Moe Htwe also urged the Burmese government to assist the ethnic people in line with the Ethnic Rights Protection Law because ethnic literature and culture associations and religious organisations were facing difficulties in funding ethnic summer school classes every year.

The Karen State Literature and Culture Association chairman, Saw Aye Mya, told KIC that though it is permitted to teach ethnic literature at government schools outside school hours such lessons are not very effective, so MPs should work to improve the effectiveness of ethnic literature classes.

The Ethnic Protection Law, which was enacted by the previous government in February 2015, states that ethnic people should be allowed to teach ethnic languages and literature as long as it does not impact on the government’s education policy.

Reporting by Nan Wai Phyo Zar for KIC News
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI