Between approximately 1 million and 2 million children in Burma are unable to study because of their family’s economic hardship. According to parents with school-age children, monthly expenses for a student in the government-run school can range from 10,000—50,000 kyat, with the amount covering fees for school registration, books and stationary, sports, the library and a school fund. The school registration fee and contribution to the school fund are one-time payments, but the amount can vary depending on the individual school. Book fees, exam fees and contributions to learning equipment are required to be made on a monthly basis and when needed . We had to buy school desk for our children as well. A Burmese academic who serves as a consultant to the Government Basic Education Department said that because the government has made an insufficient budget allocation to the education sector, parents are forced to cover some needs of the schools. A professor working for a government educational training institute said that the government’s failure to adequately support the education sector has resulted in a lack of learning equipment, deficient teacher salaries, a financial burden on the students’ families and, most importantly, a large numbers of drop-outs by students from poor families who are unable to afford the fees.
The Burmese government claimed that it has spent 352,584 million kyat for the education sector, or 4.42 % of total government spending.
For a poor family like us, the government-run schools are out of our reach. We have no choice but to take our children to monastic schools where they can receive a free education, free books, free school registration and free donations. So the monastery schools really help families like ours who face economic hardship. In his paper on “The role of Monastic Schools and Education in Burma,” Myo Tint said that over 200,000 students—or 16 % of Burma’s school-age children—are studying at over 2,500 monastic schools. The paper said that monastic schools assist in providing important educational needs for poor children and play a significant role in Burma’s education sector.