UNICEF notebook donations fall flat as supplies are sold to students

July 20th, 2010

Hong Dein : Teachers from Burmese government controlled primary schools in Mudon Township, Mon State, have sold study books donated by UNICEF to primary school students, according to parents.

A primary school in Mudon town which had been given notebooks bearing UNICEF logos, charged students for the books, which had been initially donated by the international aid agency for distribution to students for free. When parents went to enroll their children in school they ended up having to pay 5,000 kyat for the notebooks and 5,000 kyat each for the curriculum cost, according to Mi Hla Ngwe, the parent of 3rd grade student.

Mi Hla Ngwe explained, “My children only got a book this year from school. Last year they got bags [for carrying books] and note books from school.”

The UNICEF notebooks and bags that had been donated and then distributed to students, had been free with not cost to enrolling families.

But the request for payment from students families for the donated supplies isn’t the only surprising cost. Families must pay for all their enrolment and curriculum costs despite announcements in the government newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, that this year enrolment in primary schools would be free.

According to the Mudon primary school headmistress, while the Burmese government announced free primary school enrolment, the government has not given the schools extra money to cover their expenses without enrolment costs. As a result teachers have had to collect money from the students to cover the expenses for the school.

“The government just gave [us] the amount they wanted to for building a school. The school and the village parent association were paid on with the surplus money from the [completed] building,” a primary school teacher said. Once that money runs out it appears the school will have no funding.

The UNICEF program, which was first implemented in 2008, is still relatively small, operating in only 9 townships in different states and divisions throughout Burma. The program includes trainings for teachers in the use of school equipments, in addition to the donation of bags and notebooks. One primary school teacher who had attended the UNICEF training said, “Last year primary schools in [our] township got bags and books from UNICEF. But not this year.”

The decision to charge students for items donated for free distribution highlights the larger problem of underfunding that Burma’s schools notoriously face. With little support funding, schools must charge students and families anyway they can to keep functioning at a minimum level.

The teacher who received the training reported that the students at her school have become very difficult to control and that teaching is not easy due to her extreme class size of over 40 students. In addition teaching is difficult as the classes are very close together and noisy.

Students’ parents in Kalorthot village in Mudon Township have also reported having to pay high costs for middle and high school level courses. These include enrollment fees and traveling cost for both students and teachers who have to come to school from far way. The current enrollment fee for a middle school student is about 15,000 kyat and for a high school student it’s about 20,000 kyat. The traveling cost for a student is about 40,000 kyat per month. In addition for teachers, the village parent association and teachers collect money from students’ parents for each teacher traveling long distances to the school.

The headmistress added, “due to all students passing through the system [without good grades or understanding] the students will face trouble when they get to higher grades.” In some cases as a result of the under funded and over run system, some students end up dropping out before the completion of the academic year.

As a result, parents end up having to compensate for the lack of a working classroom by paying additional costs for private tutors if they want children to understand the lessons.

As noted by the MSF’s report on the “Top 10 Humanitarian Crisis of 2008”, only a quarter of children in Burma end up completing primary school.