Quick learners

LWF Myanmar was swift to establish temporary learning centers (TLCs) and distribute education kits to primary students, helping thousands of displaced children return to the classroom. After more than one year out of school, almost 2,800 displaced students returned to the classroom in the first week of October, following swift action by LWF Myanmar to establish 10 temporary learning centers and train teachers in six Muslim IDP camps in Sittwe.

In total, 2,749 primary school students (1,193 of whom were girls) joined classes at the centers as part of LWF’s Education in Emergencies initiative.

The initiative included the distribution of school kits to all primary students in the camps as well as the three Buddhist camps where students attend nearby state schools: more than 3,050 kits were distributed. They included a backpack, lunch box, umbrella, notebook, stationary and other supplies while the Government supplied the text books, coordinated by UNICEF.

It was the first time many of the students were given possessions of their own since their homes were destroyed during inter-communal violence in 2012, students and their parents said. Daw Nyo Nyo, a member of the camp management committee at Ohn Taw Gyi 5, said the new learning centers were transforming her camp.

“Before the children used to hang around with nothing to do, now they go to school,” she explained.

LWF moved quickly to establish the centers as education was the top priority of parents. Construction of the centers, which have sturdy timber floors and zinc roofs, was completed in September. Thirty-six camp-based teachers (IDPs) were trained by government educators that month and 33 of them are now teaching. Parent teacher associations were also formed for each center. Each center offers four 2-hour classes five days a week, with two teachers and up to 90 students in each one.

Attendance rates in December remained above 80%, according to daily monitoring of every TLS by LWF’s education team who monitor the classes daily. They plan to expand the curriculum in 2014 to cover all subjects in the state-school curriculum and open middle schools. Teachers will also receive refresher training and state education officials will conduct exams.

Relearning and remembering

Hla Hla May, 8, has only a hazy memory of her school before the violence. “I used to go to school when I was young, but I don’t think I finished kindergarten,” she recalls at the temporary learning center in Ohn Taw Gyi 5. She says she is happy that she has been able to learn how to read so quickly, but her teacher says it is likely that she had just forgotten that she knew how to read because she had no suitable reading material for more than a year.

Khin Soe, 9, says he is happy with his teachers and his classes because he learned how to read in two months. Hla Hla May, 8, said math was her favorite of the two subjects but said that she too had learned how to read in two months. “Some children improve very fast and some are slower, but what is noticeable is the level of enthusiasm,” explains teacher Pyae Phyo Hlaing. “Students are arriving with advice for us on what lessons to teach and what materials to read. They really enjoy reciting stories and poems.”

Hurdles remain

Despite the enthusiasm children have for learning, displaced children in all camps face immense hurdles to get their studies back on track. The lack of electricity, for example, makes it difficult to study in their homes because there is no light.

State schools near the Buddhist camps are also overcrowded now, while dropout rates among displaced children are far above the state average, teachers and members of camp management teams say. Families who lost everything in the violence also say they find it difficult to pay school feels and related costs. Moreover, students in the Muslim camps do not share a common language.

Still, Aye Ei Shaw, whose two youngest children attend a learning center in Ohn Taw Gyi 5, said she is happy they are learning to speak, read and write Myanmar language. “Before they could not speak Myanmar, now they can,” the widow explained. “Before I used to work in the fields to save money for my children’s education, but now I have no source of extra income,” she said. “It is also more difficult for them to study now because we have no light at home.”

Her 11-year old son, Khin Maung Oo, agreed that this was his biggest hurdle, saying he could only study when at the school. “I would like to have a lamp at home so that I could read and study there,” he said.