Severe restrictions on teaching Mon language

IMNA
February 9, 2006

Severe restrictions have been placed in the teaching of the Mon language by the military regime at high and middle school levels. There has only been an instance when a Burmese Army Captain set Mon textbooks on fire.

In the latest move teaching of the Mon language has been banned in the Basic Education Middle School and the Basic Education High School in Kyaikmayaw Township , according to a spokesperson of the education department from New Mon State Party.

The NMSP spokesperson said Burmese authorities don't want to allow Mon language in the higher classes.

However, the Burmese authorities will only allow teaching of the Mon Language in Basic Education Primary Schools once for about 45 minutes a day in Kwekarit Township Karen State , the spokesperson added.

In a show of rank disrespect, Captain That Aung of the Burmese Light Infantry Battalion No-558 burnt Mon school textbooks in Sar Yar Mon village, Kaleinaung Township . He also ordered Mi Kyae Lar, a principal of the Mon National School not to teach Mon. The troops seized the Mon school and changed the school to a Burmese medium primary school.

“The Burmese government will pay for the construction of the school,” according to Ko Banya who attended the Township Peace and Development Council meeting called by the education department on November 5 last year at Kaleinaung Town.

The students were dissatisfied and about 10 students left the school because it was teaching only the Burmese language after teaching Mon language was prohibited.

“It is not fair not to allow teaching of the Mon language. Seizure of the Mon National School and turning it into a Burmese medium school is worse than not allowing the teaching of the Mon language,” said Mi Maw, a student's mother.

Nai Soe Myint established the Mon National School in Kaleinaung in Tenasserim Division in 2003. Nai Soe Myint was the former Central Executive Committee member but the school did not relate to the NMSP.