Students Sent Off on Holiday due to Teacher’s Shortage

23 September 2011: Primary and middle school students in Khayaing village of Kanpetlet Township, Chin State are facing disruption of their classes due to a shortage of teachers.

Only six teachers are allocated for over 100 students in the village by the local authorities, leading to the cancellation of classes, or the students being sent off on holiday during the academic calendar.

A local Chin pastor, who used to teach on a voluntary basis, told Chinland Guardian: “Last year, children from the kindergarten and Grade 1 classes were told to have school holidays in October as there were no enough teachers.”

“This year, we have the same problem and one additional teacher is hired by having each family of the students contribute 9,000 kyats.”

A few Burmese teachers from other parts of the country assigned to teach in the village either quit or did not want to go, saying it was too remote and ‘undeveloped’, according to the Chin pastor.

The local leader-cum-pastor said that those students on holidays were even made to pass the exams at the end of the year without having to attend the classes.

When parents raised their concern about education of the children, some school teachers were quoted as saying that it was part of the rules and policies permitted by the government for teachers to make students pass the exams as required.

Khayaing was granted a middle school in 1994 and has got one teacher for Primary and five for Middle schools.

Reporting by Thawng Zel Thang