Border News Agency
Ponnakyun, May 20
Displaced people from Arakan say that children affected by the conflict are in urgent need of support for their education.
They mention that due to difficulties in securing basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing, it has become extremely challenging to provide proper education for their children.
Therefore, they emphasize the need for assistance and support to ensure educational opportunities for the children.
“We are not in a position to provide education for the children this year. We can no longer prioritize education over basic needs like food and shelter. But we still want the children to learn. Without anyone to help, there is absolutely no way the children in our camp can continue their education,” said a camp official from Ponnakyun Township, speaking to Border News Agency.
Displaced people from Arakan say they are facing difficulties in meeting their basic needs due to the lack of international humanitarian aid.
They explain that because of these challenges, families are struggling just to put food on the table, making it even harder to provide education for their children.
“The cost of buying school supplies for just one student is almost equal to what a family needs for a week’s worth of food. And that doesn’t even include school fees. Since survival has become more important than education, we haven’t been able to send our children to school,” a displaced person told Border News Agency.
Displaced people from Arakan say that school supply prices have soared significantly due to the reopening of schools.
They report that printed textbooks now cost between 50,000 to over 100,000 kyats depending on the grade level, while a dozen blank notebooks are priced between just over 20,000 kyats to more than 50,000 kyats.
“There are hardly any job opportunities, and we’re struggling even to get by each day. Sending children to school just adds to the expenses, and it’s not like before where they could attend regular classes. At this point, we just hope they can at least learn to read and write,” a parent of a displaced student living in Ponnakyun Township told Border News Agency.
Displaced people say that there are over a hundred children in the camp who are in need of education.
They add that due to the ongoing conflict in Arakan, children who are of school age have been forced to live as displaced persons and are now struggling alongside their parents just to survive, often working to help meet basic needs.
These children, they say, have already lost access to education since the start of the previous wave of fighting due to ongoing hardships.
It is reported that among those taking refuge in the displacement camps, there are also individuals who have completed their tenth-grade education.
Displaced people say that those who completed tenth grade were supported last year to work as volunteer staff at self-built schools in the camps, receiving a monthly stipend. However, this year, due to financial difficulties, the support has stopped, and as a result, the children are no longer able to continue their education.
“Last year, when we first became displaced, we still had some supplies, and things weren’t this difficult. But as time has passed, those resources have run out. The children want to study, but we simply can’t afford the costs ourselves. We hope to receive help and support for them,” a parent of a displaced student told Border News Agency.
Displaced people say that last year, all the camps in Ponnakyun Township were able to provide education for the children with the help and support of the Lin Raung Khray Foundation, so the children faced no difficulties in continuing their studies.
However, camp officials and displaced people now say that about one thousand displaced children in Ponnakyun Township are in need of educational assistance.
Displaced people and residents of the Arakan region say that frequent airstrikes by the Myanmar junta on schools in the area have caused children in towns controlled by the Arakan Army to lose their opportunity to receive education.
