By Independent Mon News Agency:
Mon State—The Mon School’s main summer exam was held in Moulmein in Mon State on May 28th, with over 700 students participating.
One of the organizer for the summer exam in Moulmein said that 775 students took the exam, which was held at the Mon monastery, Sasana 2500.
Students from 10 townships in Mon State took the exam, coming by car, and meeting at the monastery.
Mon community leaders and Buddhist monks run the summer schools every year in Mon State. Summer school is run specifically to teach Mon children their mother language. Currently, the Burmese government does not allow the teaching of Mon language at the government schools.
Meanwhile, Thanbyuzayat, Mudon, Moulmein, and Chongzone Townships held summer school graduation ceremonies.
Thanbyuzayat Township held their ceremony on May 22nd while the graduation ceremony in Moulmein was held on May 29th. Chongzone’s graduation ceremony will be held on June 5th.
A Mon Buddhist monk, who organized summer schools in Thanbyuzayat Township, said that there were 500 students this year, a 100 person drop from last year.
“We opened the schools a little late [this year] because we had to wait for the closing of the government schools,” said the monk.
Mon summer schools lasted for one month, beginning after the government schools closed in March.
Speaking at the summer graduation ceremony in Moulmein, Dr. Min Kyi Win, the senior member of the Mon Literature and Culture Committee, said, “Our committee has had to struggle a lot to organize the summer schools, which opened in different townships in Mon State.
If our Mon language can be taught at the government schools, our Buddhist monks and the school teachers will not have to struggle a lot and there will be no problems,” Dr. Min Kyi Win said.
Today, five ethnic political parties, including the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) met in Rangoon today to discuss ethnic education.
“We found in our Mon State, the ethnic education is essential to teach at the government schools,” said Nai Ngwe Thein, the chairman of the AMDP.
Banya Aung Moe, a member of the National Parliament, and also a member of AMDP, already presented the request for ethnic education to be taught at the government schools in parliament.
However, his proposal was rejected because he was unable to answer questions on the current ethnic education situation.
Ethnic education in Burma was allowed to be taught at the government schools until Ne Win’s military coup in 1962. After that, ethnic education was banned at government schools.
