Lt-General Khin Zaw awarded cash prizes at Moulmein Jubilee Hall yesterday, to Mon State schools that met the academic goals of the Burmese government for 2008-2009 school years. He award to schools principals 1,000,000 kyat per school to supplement costs.
Speaking at the ceremony, Lt-General Khin Zaw stated, “Education is import for a developing country. If our education is good, our political situation in the future will also be good. We have to try to develop qualified students.”
Also attending the ceremony were members of the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) and other Burmese government officers.
As previously reported by IMNA, the Burmese government academic goal was that schools should have 50% of their student body passing their 10th standard classes exams, and that passing class number over 100 students.
In Mon State 96 high schools took the exam and about 16 schools met the government standards, with at least 50% of the 10th standard class passing their exams, and that graduating class numbering over 100 students. 13 high schools met the requirement of at least 50% of its 10th standard class graduating, but were too small for its graduating class to reach over 100 students.
For the 13 schools that met half of the government academic expectation, they were awarded a smaller amount of money, approximately 500,000 kyat.
A Moulmein high school headmaster who joined the ceremony told IMNA that the Lt-Gen award a total of approximately 34.9 million kyat to schools. He also explained that the money is provided by Mon State business men who were asked by to donate to the fund to benefit the schools, by the Burmese government. Mudon township businessmen provided 3,000,000 Kyat and Thanbyuzayat businessmen donated 4,000,000 kyat. These business men are comprised of a diverse community that makes their money in trade, distribution, and sales of market goods and commodities.
“Even though I don’t want to provide money to the authorities for education, I have to give them money,” said a businessman from Mudon Township. “Its because I have do business with cooperate with them.”
Teacher salaries are notoriously low; their average salary being approximately 30,000 kyat a month, while a headmaster might get 80,000 kyat a month. As a result teachers must supplement their salaries anyway they can, including tutoring students after school, or selling lunches to students at school.
According to a July article from the Singapore Straits Times newspaper in 2008 Burma's total income was $6.04 billion USD, the majority of which (close to 70%) came from natural gas sales. The second largest income source has been from the sales of precious stones and gems, accounting for $647.5 million USD in sales. While the Burmese military junta has become wealthier due to these sales, the majority of spending increases has gone military expenses. An estimated 40% of Burma's annual budget goes towards military development and maintenance, while a fraction of that is spent on education, health care and other social services.
“The authorities made it look like they provided their own money, but this money was taken from the residents and business men,” the headmaster who attended the ceremony added. “This money will not be enough to support students to continue to get high grade percentages...we’ll have to collect money again.”
