Lessons in defying the junta: parallel education systems emerge
Military raids, an internet blackout and other challenges have not prevented the opening of schools under the National Unity Government in villages throughout Myaing Township.
Frontier MYANMAR | 6 JUNE, 2022
This week, as schools reopened across Myanmar, the military regime declared that students are “happily and peacefully” studying at junta-run schools in the cities that are largely under its control, like Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw.
However, a different story is unfolding in the country’s central Dry Zone, where armed resistance to the 2021 coup has been particularly fierce. In Myaing Township in northern Magway Region, dozens of schools have opened under the authority of the National Unity Government, a cabinet appointed by lawmakers elected in the 2020 polls which the military refused to recognise.
As civil servants hamstrung the regime via the mass strike known as the Civil Disobedience Movement, the NUG has moved in to try to replace some essential state services. While the process has been slow, there are glimmers of a breakthrough in Myaing Township, where the NUG’s education board said more than 70 of the 265 government schools have reopened under its control.
“We know that more than 70 schools have opened in Myaing Township, but only 69 have sent information and the exact number of teachers and students is known for 64 of them,” Ko Aye Min Win told Frontier last month. Aye Min Win is a teacher and member of the NUG’s township education board.
