Myanmar's Jungle Schools

"This coup has smashed the barriers between ethnic groups and created melting pots of people who share a common purpose – to rid Myanmar of the military". -Fleur Maidment

 On  September 5th,  leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), decided that Myanmar would not take over its leadership in 2026 as planned.

This was in response to the military junta’s failure to engage in the Five Point Plan to bring peace and stability to the country.

Moreover, they strongly condemned the continued violence and ‘urged the Myanmar Armed Forces, in particular…to de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians, houses and public facilities, such as schools, hospitals and markets.’

A destroyed village in Kayan State, March 2023/ image: Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

Myanmar’s foreign ministry responded by rejecting the statement saying it was ‘biased and one-sided.’

Eighteen months ago, I spoke to Fleur Maidment, an Australian ex-pat who lived in Singapore. In 2018, she set up the small, effective and agile NGO, Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar, which operates in the inaccessible mountains of the Karen State.

 The needs of children were central to Safe Water, so siting water filters near schools was essential. In so doing, public health education became part of the curriculum and information on the importance of hygiene and sanitation filtered back to the parents. As a by-product, Fleur also gained significant insight into the role of schools in local communities.

“The Karen community sees education as particularly important because parents can see that educating the next generation will help lift them out of the difficulties they face, so schools are the focus of communities and parents encourage their kids to go there,” said Fleur.

High School students, Kayin State Jan 2023 / image: Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

The school year runs from mid-May until the end of March with a break in April so the children can help with the harvest. The curriculum covers basic maths, English, Karen culture and history, public health, environmental education and life skills. The teachers are often former refugees who have returned to their villages from Thailand or Internally Displaced People’s camps.

Some communities cannot afford to pay them so will tend their rice crops and garden instead.

Children start school at seven in the morning, sometimes later if it’s too dangerous. Middle and High School children often stay in distant boarding dormitories during the rainy season or because it is safer than going to their village school. 

High School students trekking through the jungle to their dormitory school  Kayin State, June 2023 / :Image (Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

 “If staying in dormitories, the kids usually take their own rice with them,” said Fleur. “However, in one instance, they had to pass a nearby army camp. To avoid detection, they left at night and without their food supplies so they could move more quickly. The community alerted us to this so we provided the students with money so they could buy rice closer to school.”

Formal education ends at 18. The majority of children then return to their villages to work in community-based organisations such as those dealing with malaria control, or NGOs such as Safe Water. Others return to teach the next cohort.

Opportunities to progress into further education are limited because a Karen education or High School certificate is not recognised outside the state. This was the case even before the coup, and international bodies are reluctant to provide scholarships to students lacking familiar or sanctioned qualifications.

Nevertheless, education is vital to a community’s future so schools, just like medical centres, villages and rice paddies, are targeted by the military junta.  Before the coup, Tatmadaw ground and air attacks forced school children to take shelter in bunkers.

Children sheltering from a potential attack from Tatwadaw forces, unknown location/ image: Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

Since the coup in February 2021, attacks on village and dormitory schools have increased. If there is warning of an imminent assault students and teachers will grab what they can and flee into the forest. They will remain there until the danger has passed, even if it takes weeks.

Children studying in a jungle school, eastern Myanmar  February 2023 / image: Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

Living in makeshift forest shelters leaves the children open to tropical diseases, snake bites, scorpion stings, and in the absence of clean water, dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera.

Students living under tarpaulin, eastern Myanmar June 2023 / Image : Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar

Without access to their gardens or rice paddies, they have to hunt birds, squirrels or rats to survive.

Although the junta is waging a campaign of fear against all who oppose it, there is a silver lining. Fleur explains: -

“After the coup, many teachers in the official Burmese schools went on strike and the schools were closed. The Karen education system was the only one still operating so thousands of Burmese students and teachers fled to the Karen state to continue their education.  Burmese and Karen students and teachers had never mixed to this extent before. Now they’ve been forced together, they are learning more about each other’s history and culture.

Also, until recently, the Burmese ethnic group have rarely been under attack by government forces so now they can appreciate what the Karen and other ethnic groups have been going through since 1949.  Likewise, after the coup, doctors, nurses, government officials and other workers fled to the mountains and they are also sharing their skills and experience with the local communities. Whilst there are small pockets of tension due to pressure on local resources, everyone is working towards a common goal.

"This coup has smashed the barriers between ethnic groups and created melting pots of people who share a common purpose – to rid Myanmar of the military junta.”

What remains to be seen is whether these melting pots produce a new generation of children who respect and accept other cultures on equal terms and have the confidence to govern together.

 If you would like to support Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar, please donate here.

- Asia Media Centre