Thousands suspended at Myanmar universities as junta targets education
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2022
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
Thousands suspended at Myanmar universities as junta targets education

World+Biz

Reuters
10 May, 2021, 03:10 pm
Last modified: 10 May, 2021, 03:17 pm

Related News

  • A school with one student!
  • BCL leader tortured for not taking coaching classes in Satkhira 
  • How to revive the pre-Covid teaching environment in educational institutions
  • Myanmar to resume issuing tourist visas after 2-year
  • Myanmar junta to reopen borders to tourists

Thousands suspended at Myanmar universities as junta targets education

"I feel upset to give up a job that I adored so much, but I feel proud to stand against injustice," said one 37-year-old university rector, who gave her name only as Thandar for fear of reprisals

Reuters
10 May, 2021, 03:10 pm
Last modified: 10 May, 2021, 03:17 pm
Students hold a banner and flash the three-finger salute as they take part in a protest against Myanmar’s junta, in Mandalay, Myanmar May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer
Students hold a banner and flash the three-finger salute as they take part in a protest against Myanmar’s junta, in Mandalay, Myanmar May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar's ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers' group told Reuters.

The suspensions come as the resumption of universities after a year closed due to the coronavirus epidemic prompts a new confrontation between the army and the staff and students who are calling for boycotts over the Feb. 1 coup.

"I feel upset to give up a job that I adored so much, but I feel proud to stand against injustice," said one 37-year-old university rector, who gave her name only as Thandar for fear of reprisals.

"My department summoned me today. I'm not going. We shouldn't follow the orders of the military council."

A professor on a fellowship in the United States said she was told she would have to declare opposition to the strikes or lose her job. Her university authorities had told her every scholar would be tracked down and forced to choose, she told Reuters.

As of Monday, more than 11,100 academic and other staff had been suspended from colleges and universities offering degrees, an official of the Myanmar Teachers' Federation told Reuters, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Reuters was not immediately able to ascertain exactly what proportion of total staff that figure represents. Myanmar had more than 26,000 teachers in universities and other tertiary education institutions in 2018, according to the most recent World Bank data.

Students and teachers were at the forefront of opposition during nearly half a century of military rule and have been prominent in the protests since the army detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and halted a decade of tentative democratic reforms.

Many teachers, like medics and other government workers, have stopped work as part of a civil disobedience movement that has paralysed Myanmar. As protests flared after the coup, security forces occupied campuses in the biggest city, Yangon, and elsewhere.

A spokesman for the junta did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on the suspensions.

The junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said teachers and students should cooperate to get the education system started again.

"Political opportunists do not wish to see such development by committing sabotage acts," it said.

Boycotts

It was not clear to what extent the 11,000 staff suspensions would hamper efforts to reopen colleges but many students are also boycotting classes.

At the public West Yangon Technological University, the student's union published a list of 180 staff who had been suspended to hail them as heroes.

"I don't feel sad to miss school," said 22-year-old Hnin, a student of the Yangon University of Education. "There's nothing to lose from missing the junta's education."

Zaw Wai Soe, education minister in a rival National Unity Government set up underground by opponents of the junta, said he was touched that students had told him they would only return "when the revolution prevails".

Doubts have also been raised over the return to school of younger students, with institutions now taking registrations for the start of a new year. There are nearly 10 million school students in the country of 53 million.

Protesters daubed "We don't want to be educated in military slavery" at the entrance of a school in the southern town of Mawlamyine last week, a phrase that has been echoed at demonstrations across Myanmar by students.

"We'll go to school only when Grandmother Suu is released," read a banner of students in the northern town of Hpakant at the weekend, referring to detained leader Suu Kyi. "Free all students at once," said another sign.

Many students are among at least 780 people killed by security forces and the 3,800 in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group.

At least 47 teachers are also among the detainees while arrest warrants have been issued for some 150 teachers on charges of incitement.

Myanmar's education system was already one of the poorest in the region - and ranked 92 of 93 countries in a global survey last year.

Even under the leadership of Suu Kyi, who had championed education, spending was below 2% of gross domestic product. That was one of the lowest rates in the world, according to World Bank figures.

Students could have little expectation of progress in Myanmar this year, said Saw Kapi, a founding director of the Salween Institute for Public Policy think tank.

"When it comes to education, I would suggest that instead of thinking about getting a bachelor's degree, you must go to the University of Life with a major in revolution," he wrote on social media. "You can go for a Masters or PhD later."

Top News

Myanmar / Myanmar activists / Myanmar Protest / suspended / university staff / myanmar military / Education / junta / Myanmar junta

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Social safety budget to stay same despite inflation rise
    Social safety budget to stay same despite inflation rise
  • RMG makers worried over move on power tariff hike
    RMG makers worried over move on power tariff hike
  • A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
    Dollar hits Tk100 mark in open market

MOST VIEWED

  • Service members of pro-Russian troops, including fighters of the Chechen special forces unit, stand in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov
    Azovstal siege ends as hundreds of Ukrainian fighters surrender
  • French President Emmanuel Macron gives a news conference at the end of a special meeting of the European Council in light of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium, February 25, 2022. Photo :Reuters
    Macron urges rapid Israeli probe into death of Al Jazeera reporter
  • Emergency personnel work near a building damaged after a military strike, in Odesa, Ukraine, in this handout image released May 9, 2022. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
    G7 finance ministers plan 15 billion euros aid for Ukraine
  • North Korea Covid outbreak is 'worrying' for new variants -WHO
    North Korea Covid outbreak is 'worrying' for new variants -WHO
  • Women take part in a pro-abortion rights demonstration to mark International Safe Abortion Day, in Madrid, Spain on 28 September 2021. Photo: Reuters
    In Europe's first, Spain aims to introduce paid menstrual leave
  • Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and the Moderate Party's leader Ulf Kristersson (not pictured) hold a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden on 16 May 2022. TT News Agency/Henrik Montgomery via
    Sweden and Finland to hand in NATO applications on Wednesday, Swedish PM says

Related News

  • A school with one student!
  • BCL leader tortured for not taking coaching classes in Satkhira 
  • How to revive the pre-Covid teaching environment in educational institutions
  • Myanmar to resume issuing tourist visas after 2-year
  • Myanmar junta to reopen borders to tourists

Features

Despite Bangladesh having about 24,000 km of waterways, only a few hundred kilometres are covered by commercial launch services. Photo: Saad Abdullah

Utilising waterways: When common home-goers show the way

20h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

How Putin revived Nato

21h | Panorama
The reception is a volumetric box-shaped room that has two glass walls on both the front and back ends and the other two walls are adorned with interior plants, wood and aluminium screens. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

The United House: Living and working inside nature

21h | Habitat
Pcycle team members at a waste management orientation event. Photo: Courtesy

Pcycle: Turning waste from bins into beautiful crafts

23h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

After six decades ,the Archies is back

After six decades ,the Archies is back

12h | Videos
Exporters in discomfort, expatriates preferring Hundi

Exporters in discomfort, expatriates preferring Hundi

12h | Videos
The first mosque in India was built Prophet Mohammad time

The first mosque in India was built Prophet Mohammad time

12h | Videos
Can your coworker be your closest friend?

Can your coworker be your closest friend?

22h | Videos

Most Read

1
Representative Photo: Pixabay.
Bangladesh

Microplastics found in 5 local sugar brands

2
Mushfiq Mobarak. Photo: Noor-A-Alam
Panorama

Meet the Yale professor who anchors his research in Bangladesh and scales up interventions globally

3
The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter
Industry

The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter

4
How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives
Bazaar

How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives

5
Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve
Economy

Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve

6
Impact of falling taka against US dollar
Banking

Taka losing more value as global currency market volatility persists

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab