"THEY WERE like children anywhere on their first day at a new school; there were smiles, apprehension and a few tears. However, for these children, the comfort of home was far away. They were ethnic Pa-O who had travelled hundreds of kilometres from southern Shan State to live and study at a Yangon monastery where they would receive a better education than in their villages. Pa-O children who come to Yangon for a better education face many challenges. One of the biggest is learning Burmese. Nan Nge Yan, 12, from Khanwae village, Pinlaung Township, said she had a difficult time when she first attended school in Yangon two years ago. Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member. “We can’t speak Burmese and at first we didn’t have textbooks. When the teacher asked questions, we had no idea what the answer was. It took two months for the teacher to realise we didn’t have any books,” Nge Yan said. She learned Burmese from other Pa-O children at the Shan Gyi Taw Ya monastery in Yangon’s outer eastern Thanlyin Township. For the past 20 years, the monastery has been helping to give children from minority groups, mainly Pa-O, a better education than they could receive in their villages. They are given a basic education and only return home during the summer holidays. The parents of most of the children donate up to K100,000 a year for their education, but some from poor families do not have to pay. The monastery accepted 45 children this year, down from 80 in 2017, when some absconded because of the language barrier..."