Mi Lyi Htaw : Teachers at Burma’s state-run primary and high schools, as well as the country’s universities, are hurrying to complete their semester curriculum before the upcoming November elections.
According to relatives of Mon State school teachers, orders issued by the Burmese government in late September 2010 mandated that comprehensive exams for this semester at every educational institution in the country must be finished by October 22nd of this year.
According to sources within the Mon State school system, many teachers are have accelerated their lesson plans in order to meet the upcoming deadline, leaving a large number of students overwhelmed and confused by the rapid instruction they receive. It has not yet been announced when schools will reopen for the beginning of the next semester.
A teacher from Thanphyuzayart said his school will be closed on October 22nd until the end of the month. “It is not clear if the school will be open or closed in November”, he reported
State school semester exams in Burma are typically scheduled to fall in late October or early November, but in the past teachers who fail to finish teaching their curriculums can extend the exam date to accommodate finishing their courses for the semester. This year marks the first year that teacher have been given an absolute deadline by which their fall exams must be concluded, inciting many teachers to rush through their lessons for fear of exceeding the late October deadline.
Academic staff in Mon State, who asked that their identities be concealed, reported that schools in Mudon Township have drastically accelerated their interaction schedules; a headmaster from a school in Thanphyuzayart Township reported that the schools in his township have not felt the need to hurry their lessons.
Many teachers within the Mon State school system are reportedly concerned that the exam deadline is a government ploy to free teachers to organize campaigns for the government’s proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), over the ensuing break. Sources with ties to Mon State teachers claimed that the Burmese government has already asked teachers in the state to give public trainings on proper procedures for voting in the upcoming elections.
Teachers who are compelled to organize pro-USDP campaigns are frequently very concerned that such actions will make them unpopular within their communities, and might lead to retaliation from anti-government groups.
“The teachers are so worried about how USDP came to their school to ask the teachers to help them for the election. The USDP came to organize at the schools in Mudon Township [many times] because the villagers do not like the USDP anymore. The teachers are worried that the villagers will misunderstand them [and think the teachers are USDP supporters],” a sister of a high school teacher in Mudon Township reported.
The headmaster from Thanphyuzayart Township reported that today, October 4th, ten teachers from Thanphyuzayart Township will lead rallies where they will demonstrate proper proceeders for voting in the elections, in each of their respective villages.
The Mudon Township high school teacher’s sister reported that teachers who have already received election trainings from the USDP are now being called by the party to give repeat training to their communities in groups of one or two, or to make populations counts and lists of USDP supporters in their villages.
The November 7th elections have lead to widespread restrictions throughout Burma since early 2010. Citizens have been discouraged from gathering in large groups for several months now, and as of October 1st, the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) has prohibited all villages in Burma from celebrating festivals before the elections.
