Many children in Burma are waiting for the beginning of the new school year which begins tomorrow. Students and parents are crowding the schools to register their children. But the parents are worried about their children's future. What will my child do after graduation? This is the question that plagues them.
Most students can hardly afford to buy exercise books and pencils. Take for instance Thu Ra who is in the ninth grade in Kamarwat village, Mudon Township. His family is into farming and feels the pinch. They can barely afford the fees to send their boy to school. Holding his big brother's hand, he is happy today because his brother has come up with the fees for his education. Thu Ra says he feels sad sometimes because he does not know what he will do after he finishes school. Many graduates wind up working on farms, migrate to the city or leave the country illegally as migrant workers.
Like all parents in Asia, Burmese parents also place a high priority on education to achieve a high position in society. They are no different and want to see their children enter the university to get a degree. Many students, who have graduated from universities in the last two decades, have had difficulty finding a decent job to bring in enough money to support their family. In post independence Burma, the government which had started on a socialist path had vigorously made education available to all children throughout the country, but nowadays the Burmese regime is grappling to bring in much needed foreign direct investment and trying to develop a blueprint for education to match the educational needs of its population to �the changing economic and political situation. � The priority in its stated goal to bring education to all people now is not as important as controlling the ethnic nationalities and as such it pays little attention to education and health of children living in rural or remote communities.
The Burmese military spends US 1$ per person on education as opposed to the 40 percent spent on the military and focuses more on controlling social unrest as has been reflected in the structure of the universities layout on the Yangon University campus. For example, departments and disciplines are physically separated into separate universities and undergraduates and graduates are taught in separate facilities. A UNESCO report stated that while universities have sprung up, the quality of education is mediocre, with low quality infrastructure, no technical or up to date technology for students to learn to meet the demands of a globalised world. Meanwhile those who study overseas are most likely not to return, thus further impoverishing the country�s position in the world.
For years now, the country has grown poorer and people are not able to focus on their children's education and instead have to concentrate on providing for their family, a rural teacher explained. � But the main shortcoming is also lack of funds. We have no electricity, the infrastructure is poor and committed teachers are not able to get adequate pay to keep up their morale. Many pupils have to share textbooks and we don� t have a lab for science projects, � he added.
The economic meltdown of the country contributing to growing inflation and high unemployment continues to haunt the rulers of Burma, the second poorest country in the world according to UN (United Nations) statistics. Shrinking industries and depleted agricultural land have forced many skilled and unskilled people to flee to search for better paying jobs. As problems deepen, the current pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is kept under house arrest and the world continues to urge the Burmese military to release her and reform the country's political situation.
