NEWS - Thousands Join Queue for Clo

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - Thousands Join Queue for Closed Myanmar Colleges

Thousands Join Queue for Closed Myanmar Colleges

               Reuters
               26-JUL-99

               YANGON, July 26 (Reuters) - More than 100,000 students
               have passed the latest university entrance test in
Myanmar
               but instead of starting their studies will join 300,000
others
               waiting for the military government to reopen campuses
               closed in 1996. 

               Results published on Sunday showed 112,722 students of
               399,318 who sat the exams in March passed. 

               They will join the 300,000 students who passed in 1996,
               1997 and 1998 and have been waiting for colleges to
reopen
               so they can start their courses. 

               About 30 universities and colleges nationwide have been
               closed since early December 1996 after anti-government
               protests in some big cities. 

               The protests were the largest seen in Myanmar since a
               student-led pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was
               crushed by the military. 

               Classes for masters degree courses and some post and
               undergraduate diploma courses have restarted but regular
               degree courses remain suspended except at institutes
under
               the Ministry of Health. 

               No official was available to comment on the reopening of
the
               remaining universities.