"Burmese monastery school students hold out collection boxes to keep their classes going. As Burmese children troop back to school this month they?ll be swapping tales of what they did in the summer holidays. While most spent their few free weeks at leisure, thousands of others will be recalling hours at the roadside collecting money to ensure that their schools can continue when term resumes. These conscientious kids attend Burma?s 1,300 monastery schools, where free primary education is offered up to grade five and, in just a few establishments, grade eight. The alternative for their parents is to enroll them in state schools, where the fees and the cost of uniforms and school books are a big burden o?n average family budgets..."