KALADAN PRESS NETWORK
UNHCR DISTRIBUTES RICE AMONG ADULT LEARNERS
By our correspondent:
Buthidaung, Arakan, June 2: The
UNHCR staff at
Maungdaw is now distributing rice
among the elderly
villagers reading under Adult
Education Program of
UNHCR, said a villager.
In the morning of
staff from Maungdaw
headed by Field officer Ms. Mila
had visited the villages of Pan Bey Chaung, Maung Nama
and Zee Done in the area of Na Sa
Ka camp No-20 under
sector No. 9 of
Daw Khin Khin Oo, Kabir Ahmad, Salamat Ullah and
Mohammad Ahmad are among the team members of the
UNHCR.
The UNHCR team had helped each adult learner with
about one pound of rice for a day.
But it is still not
known how long the help to the
elderly readers will
continue.
According to the UNHCR and UNDP, the illiteracy rate
in Arakan has reached 90% of the
adult population as
compared to 29% for the whole
country (figures in 2000
and 1994).
It may be mentioned herein that there is at least a
teacher in one village school. But,
the very low pay
is a strong discouragement for
teachers not to even
show up at school. While the UNHCR
has helped to
renovate or/and build numerous
schools in the region,
the World Food Programme (WFP) has
also set up a
training programme for the
teachers. However, the WFP
stated in February 1999 that 70
newly opened schools
still had no teachers said a source
in the WFP.
NGOs working in the Arakan state stated that the
Buddhist teachers, badly paid, refuse to be appointed
to the remote villages where Rohingyas live, while the
Rohingyas have been forbidden to
be appointed as
school teachers since 1978. Even in
villages where
there is a primary school, some of
the children cannot
go to school, because of both the
school fees and the
loss of earnings a child in school
represents for a
family. However, the Adult
Education Programme of
UNHCR and WFP is of interest and help to the villagers
in north Arakan.
Editor
Kaladan Press
Dated: