Window on Burma #14

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BINA  -- The Burma Independent News Agency  --  

Window on Burma  #14  
  
(From MoJo #5, August 1999)


TEACHERS FORCED TO SELL THEIR DIGNITY UNDER THE SPDC ECONOMY 

(This story was submitted to MoJo by a Burmese schoolteacher)

In the British colonial times, farmers and workers were treated like
animals by the colonialists.  But now, in the period of SLORC/SPDC, not
only the farmers and workers but also the educated teachers have lost the
community's respect.  They are being mocked by other government employees,
by business people, by the professional class, and even by the parents of
the students.  Why?

The cost of living in Burma is now 10 times higher than it was a decade
ago.  But there has been no change for the past 10 years in a primary
school teacher's salary of 950 kyat per month.  During the more than 10
years of SLORC/SPDC rule, the inflation rate has been so high that all
government workers, and especially the teachers, have suffered emotionally
and materially.  From the following food and clothing prices (as of June
1999), one can imagine the teachers' impossible circumstances:

One viss of rice (8 condensed milk tins)		125 Kyat
One viss of oil (about 3 pounds)			600 Kyat
One bundle of water lily greens (10)			    5 Kyat
One low-quality school uniform ("longyi")		800 Kyat

Because of their money problems, the teachers complained loudly when Lt.
Gen. Khin Nyunt himself opened the Paung Gyi Teachers' Seminar recently.
But Chairman of the Education Committee Khin Nyunt told them not to worry.
He had established a "Government Economic Cooperative" investment program
to help all the government workers in Burma.  "Doesn't the GEC give support
to the teachers?"  He asked.

Here is how the GEC worked: The first month, the teachers paid in 500 kyat
each, from their salaries, to the Township GEC.  Then the next month,
another 500 kyat for the District GEC.  This 1000 kyat total investment
represented a month's salary, and it was a great hardship for the teachers
to part with it.  

After the first year, a meeting was called in each township, and the profit
from the GEC investments was shared.  Each teacher got 120 kyat on his or
her 12-month investment of 1000 kyat.  Thus, the monthly profit came to 10
kyat.  With 40% annual inflation, and some goods doubling in price each
year, 10 kyat a month was a bitter reward for the teachers.  The wise Lt.
Gen. Khin Nyunt's investment program to help them became a common joke in
schools everywhere.

But the great economic leader was not yet finished.  Next, the Chairman of
the Education Committee Khin Nyunt advised the teachers to open food stalls
in each school to raise money for themselves.  As a result, primary,
middle, and high schools all over Burma started such a program.  The
vendors who used sell snacks at school were no longer allowed to sell
there, once the teachers started running the food stalls.  

In (name withheld) Township (Mandalay Division), for example, some primary
school teachers bought cheap fruit from local street sellers.  They mixed a
sauce of ground chili, salt, and water for the fruit, and sold it to the
children as a snack.  The primary school children were too young to realize
the poor quality of the food.  

When school started at nine, the teachers were too busy selling food to
begin their classes on time.  They also had to leave early to prepare for
lunchtime break, boiling corn and sweet potatoes, peeling papaya for salad,
and cutting watermelon.  There was hardly any time left for teaching the
class.  This was the great loss for the students.

Normally, teachers are well respected in Burma, on a level with the monks
and one's parents, but the food-selling business has lowered the teachers'
status.  It is difficult for the students to respect teachers who are
begging them to buy their food at the lunch break.  The teachers have no
choice, however, since without the extra money they cannot survive.

Furthermore, students from some poor families couldn't get pocket money for
food.  So the teachers complained: "Can't your mothers give you even 5 kyat
a day for pocket money?  Bring your money by lunchtime.  Here we have nice
papaya salad, very delicious."  In this way, the teachers lost what was
left of their dignity.  The education system had become just another
moneymaking scheme for them.

The young students also felt bad about themselves, and went back home to
insist on the money from their parents, being worried about refusing the
teachers' wishes.  Some students were afraid to come to school without the
money.  All this finally made the parents miserable, too.

At the end of the month, the money earned from selling snacks, in one-kyat
and 5-kyat notes, is counted, and divided among the teachers.  They hardly
bother to discuss their teaching or their students any more.  It is
happening like this all over Burma, in every school.

Competition for the students' pocket money has become severe.  In one of
the high schools, because the teachers are selling food in the school
compound, the old vendors have moved outside the compound to sell their
snacks.  When some students went to buy from the outside, the teachers were
quick to punish them.  The teachers complained to the headmaster about the
competition.

Headmasters are also grossly underpaid under this military government.
Most of them have to go outside the school and find other business, because
their salaries do not cover family expenses.  Thus, they, too, are unable
to perform their duties properly.

This headmaster went to ask the outside vendors to close their shops, and a
great argument then ensued between the teachers and the vendors.  The
vendors complained to the Ward PDC (local government officials), since they
had always sold food there with no problems.  They were small business
people who had no other way to make money.  But the PDC could do nothing
for them, since Khin Nyunt had told the teachers to do the food business.
The vendors burst out in anger and frustration, because of the hard lives
that they now had to face.

These are some of the unfortunate circumstances that the ordinary people of
Burma must endure daily under the incompetent rule of the SPDC.  The
Chairman of the Education Committee, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, has shown himself
to be ignorant and shameless.  He has carelessly created a great agony for
the teachers, denying them a living wage and forcing them to exchange their
dignity for money in front of the parents, students, and their communities.
 The damage that this military government is doing to the civil
institutions of Burma is perhaps already beyond repair.

******************

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"Dialogue is inevitable.  We will not just sit and wait.  We will continue
doing what has to be done."
NLD General Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi