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Mon Schools Endure Funding Crisis

By Lawi Weng, Irrawaddy

December 1, 2009

Many schoolteachers in Mon State in southeastern Burma are currently working without salaries after international donors were unable to provide funds to Mon education authorities for the second half of this year.

School administrators from Mon State who recently arrived at the Thai-Burmese border told The Irrawaddy that some teachers have not received salaries since June.

The international donor agencies involved include the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the National Health and Education Committee (NHEC), which are based in Thailand.

An OSI representative told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the funds have been approved, but were delayed and will be transferred to the Mon National Education Committee (MNEC) within the next two weeks.

The NHEC does not provide salaries for Mon teachers, but funds educational materials. The NHEC is currently unable to provide materials to several ethnic education departments in Burma, including that of the Mon. An official from the NHEC told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the NHEC had not received the allocated funds from its respective donors.

He said that the relevant funding has been delayed since June. In the meantime, he said, the NHEC is only able to cover funding for “essential materials” in Mon schools.

In Mudon Township in southern Mon State, several village headmen have reportedly refused to allow schoolteachers to request money from local villagers to support the schools, because the headmen fear retribution from the the Burmese authorities.

The MNEC operates under the guidance of the Mon cease-fire group, the New Mon State Party (NMSP), and oversees nearly 1,000 teachers at 271 schools in Mon State. According to recent data from the MNEC, there are 157 schools in Mon State which offer children tuition in Mon language, and 114 schools which offer a mixed curriculum of Burmese and Mon-language education.

In 2007, according to the MNEC, Mon State had about 50,000 students studying in 375 schools. Some schools were forced to shut down by the Burmese authorities starting in 2002.

A schoolteacher at a MNEC-affiliated school in Mon State generally receives a salary of 20,000 kyat (US $20) a month, whereas teachers at government schools earn twice that.

When the NMSP signed a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese junta in 1995, an informal understanding arose between all parties allowing for Mon language to be taught in state-run schools in Mon State.

By 2002, Mon classes had become an integral part of the school curricula in Mon State, a move seen by many local people as a benefit of the cease-fire agreement.

However, relations soured in 2003 when the NMSP attended a national constitutional convention held by the regime, but left after a proposal to federalize Burma was rejected. Later, the party simply sent observers to the convention.

The NMSP officially rejected the military government's constitution in 2008, and has indicated it will boycott the general election next year. Tensions are currently simmering as Naypyidaw has given the NMSP leaders until the end of December to accept its proposal to transform the Mon cease-fire group's armed faction into junta-controlled border guard units.