About 1,250 children have been affected by the closure of 14 schools due ongoing conflict in three townships in Loilem District, central Shan State according to a 3 November Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) report.
More than 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N) controlled townships of Kesi, Mong Hsu and Mong Nong since Burma Army soldiers and artillery started launching attacks in those areas on 6 October
Nang Hseng Hearn, a Shan language teacher in Mong Hsu Township, told SHAN that though the new semester is supposed to begin shortly many children will be unable to attend because they have been displaced.
She said: “Villagers are afraid to go back home, so how can the schools open when there is no one living in the village? Now we are preparing to build a temporary school for the children so that they have a place to study”
Statistics on the destruction caused by the current offensives differ: according to SHRF, 22 villages have suffered damage or displacement from the fighting, but local SHAN sources claim that 50 villages—nearly 1,400 households—have been impacted.
The affected villages include Wan Hai, Wan Ba Kee, Wan Par Moong, Wan Koon Keng, Wan Nur, Wan Lwe, Nam Soam, Nar Bea, Mong Ak, Wan Kyaung and Wan Tam.
Data on education in Shan State’s conflict areas is difficult to obtain.
In October 2011 Nang Zawm Aye, a Shan education scholar, carried out research on primary education in the Loilem District township of Kunhing, which, like the three Loilem townships presently under attack, is also classified as a conflict area.
He found that only one-third of Kunhing’s children were enrolled in school, and up to 75 percent of the township’s children do not finish primary school.
According to the study, one of the factors contributing to low graduation rates in the area is “hostility” from the Burma Army.
The current Burma Army offensives in Loilem District started less than 10 days before the 15 October signing of the nationwide ceasefire agreement between the government and eight ethnic armed organisations (EAOs). More than 12 EAOs refused to sign the NCA or were excluded from the process by the government.
Unsurprisingly, the SSPP/SSA-N was one of the EAOs that refused to sign NCA.
By SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.)
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
