To get an education, parents typically have to pay bribes to teachers or pay the teachers for extra private classes that help guarantee their children passage through the system.

Tun is a teacher who says he has had enough. He took up teaching 30 years ago because he was enthusiastic and wanted to make a difference. But now he would rather run a small business selling rice than continue in an educational system that provides him ‘starvation wages’.

Tun says he refused to pay the bribes necessary to climb the ladder. ‘I know how to get a promotion’, Tun told Mizzima recently. ‘But I did not use this known method. It would spoil my morale and dignity’.

There is a preset price for teachers who wish to obtain a promotion, he said. Because he was unwilling to pay the ‘grease money’ or ‘whispering money’ to ease his rise, he spent 20 years as a primary assistant teacher in a remote village in Thowgwa Township before he eventually became headmaster.

But it is the effect that the corrupt system has on the students that particularly galls him.

‘I felt that I could no longer stay in this irregular world of a school teaching career because it was hopeless for a hard-working student to become an outstanding student in this system’, he said. ‘The current system cannot produce such students. This is a predetermined and deliberate plan. In this system, quantity is more important than quality’.

Things have changed for the worse, he said: ‘Previously, the second day of the New Year in the Burmese lunar calendar was a really thrilling and exciting day for all students from primary to 9th grade. This is the day that final exam results are announced. Many students rushed to school and were excited to see the results, value and merit of education’.

Now the schools are deserted on this day, he said, because the pupils know their names will be in the exam result list. The system has changed. ‘Their class teacher has already called them for summer classes for the next academic year. Those who have attended such (private) tuition classes provided by their teacher do not need to worry about passing their exams. The current education system guarantees a 100 per cent pass rate in exams but not for quality education. This system makes school teachers corrupt and downgrades their moral values. Even in this 100 per cent pass rate system, the teachers force their students to attend their moonlighting tuition classes by threatening to give a failing grade to those who refuse to attend. It’s a depressing system’.

Even the hardworking and outstanding students lose their motivation, he said.

Tun has quit teaching. ‘I can act no more in this play. I would face starvation unless I jumped on the bandwagon of my fellow teachers. It’s impossible to survive using a government salary. Then there was only one option left for me, resigning from the job, exiting from this unexciting play. Now I sell rice for my living’, Tun said.

Money makes the difference, a situation that puts poor families at a particular disadvantage. One parent told Mizzima that it is easy for her young son to pass an exam––but only if the teacher is paid to provide extra tuition.

‘My child is enrolled in second grade, but he cannot memorize even the alphabet,’ she complained. ‘I have enrolled him in private tuition classes run by his class teachers since he was in kindergarten. This is not my choice. It was done under pressure from his teachers, otherwise my child cannot get favour from them. The teachers know the economic background of each student in their class. She asked each and every one of them’.

She said the teacher will not force those who really cannot afford it to attend a private tuition class, but they also will not give free tuition to them. ‘Moreover, she will not take care of those students in her class and she will not give favour to those students’, the parent said.

Even paying for private classes does not guarantee a good education. ‘The result of enrolling my child in the teacher’s private tuition class and giving presents to her is poor performance in the class. Anyway, my child is promoted to the next class every academic year’.

If a child performs poorly, the teacher will call the parent with an offer of help.

‘His teacher called me before announcing the result to tell me my child failed in this and that subject but she could offer a passing grade if I wish. Then I said yes as many other parents did’.

The parent says she regrets paying the teacher so that her child made the grade. ‘My child still cannot read well even now’, she said.

Money and influence matter throughout the system, and to the  college and university level.

Ma Wei Lin and Ma Khaing Zar are close friends of the same age. They passed their matriculation exam at the end of the 10th grade from Ayeyarrwady Division in the first academic year of the new education system in 2002. They scored the same, just over 40 percent. Only in one subject, Burmese language, did they score just over 50 percent. So their aggregate marks were just over 250 for a total of six subjects.

Such a grade level was useless for a college education. But they decided to try to gain admission in one of the higher learning institutes, a teachers’ training college, just for the status that being a college student would give them.  When they visited they found many other students with similar grades, and returned home worried. They told their parents that they might not be able to get in.

Their parents desperately sought influential people in the education field who could help their daughters with admission. They gave 50,000 kyat (US $58) and a lot of gifts to obtain a personal interview, the first stage. During the personal interviews, the questions they were asked on the political and economic objectives of the Burmese regime were tough. They failed to giv correct answers.

Although they feared they would not get in, both of them were selected thanks to the grease money spent by their parents.

During their time at college, there were more calls to pay money. In the end, their results were different. Ma Wei Lin was appointed as a primary assistant teacher in Pyapon, not far away from her home. Ma Khaing Zar found herself appointed to the same post but far from home in China State.

Grease money eventually helped Ma Khaing Zar. After some money had been paid, she was transferred to Hinthada near her home and given a post of junior assistant teacher.

For many students throughout the country, money and influence are the key to passing through the education system and gaining good positions in public schools.