Akyab, May 5: The ruling State Peace and
Development Council’s (SPDC) international claim that it is focussing
on the educational development of students living in the border areas is a lie,
said a newly exiled Arakanese student in
He fled to
There are less than a thousand students in Sittwe (Akyab) University, and there are no more than five Master
students. “Graduating five Master students in a year is not development,
but regression,” he claimed.
In the government newspapers and state television the SPDC is claming that
there is a high standard of education, and that there
are computers at universities and courses in computer related subjects.
However, at Akyab Universtiy,
computer related subjects are rote learned from books, and no computers are
allowed to be used except by Computer Science students. In addition,
Computer Science students can use computers for no more than two days a week,
and no more than two hours on each of those days.
Though it has been opened for a while,
An academic year lasts only about four months, and most students have to take
private tuition from the teachers. Fees for tuition is
about 15,000 kyats a month, and the teachers guarantee to pass every student
who take up the tuition, says Saw Bhone Tun.
Since SPDC’s education is in such disarray, most
students do not have faith in the education system. People have a view
that working is better than studying, therefore parents are not encouraging
their children’s education.#
For further information, please contact Narinjara:
Phone: 880 189 255 018 (Mobile)
E-mail: [email protected]