Education

Young Karen people who fled conflict in their homeland in Burma and resettled in Australia are able to learn, write and speak their own language. Victoria State, appreciate and happy for being able to maintain their language through the official Karen language class. The Australia government first recognized and introduced into state schools the teaching of the Karen language five…

Small girls and boys in a variety of traditional Karen costumes – girls wear striped, white, blue and yellow dresses, while boys wear red. It is Saturday morning and the children gather in front of their wooden school, a basic structure that lacks walled classrooms. The children are primarily students. On normal schooldays the students wear a uniform of white…

Parents of high school graduates in Three Pagoda Pass Town in Kyain Seikgyi Township, Karen State allege the headmistress of the school is demanding excessive fees for the university entrance exam application form. A parent of a high school graduate, said the going rate in Kyain Seikgyi Township is 2,500kyat a student, Daw Khin Hla Wai, the headmistress of Three…

A sign of the easing of restrictions on its citizens by the Burma government are that Karen languages are now being openly taught in a public space in Rangoon. Karen language classes are to be given free to anyone interested in learning the three different ethnic languages offered by Thamathambuda Buddhist Karen Library on Arzarni Street, the eastern gate of…

Karenni people from different regions are keen to learn a Karenni language created in 1955 by the former chairman of the Karenni National Progressive Party, Ku Htae Bu Peh, and mainly taught in Shadaw Township up until now. The KNPP explain that people from Loi Kaw and Demoso Townships have asked to learn the Karenni language. The KNPP are planning…

Naw Dabora Htoo, education coordinator with the Karen Refugee Committee, said schoolteachers working in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border are long over due a pay rise, but this academic year they will get an increase in their monthly subsidy. Speaking to Karen News, Naw Dabora said camp teachers have deserved better pay for a long time. “We would like…

In a small bamboo hut located at the bottom of a mountain in the Dawna Ranges, that rises in Eastern Burma, a small girl is busy putting firewood in a stove made out of three stones. The girl is, Naw Bleh Hsi, fills the water in a smoke blackened pot and sits it on top of the three-stone-stove to boil.…

As part of their recent signed ceasefire agreement, local government authorities and leaders of Karen armed groups put away their weapons and attended a school opening ceremony at Leh Haw village under Kawkareik last week. The village head, Saw Pha Ta Pot, Karen National Liberation Army officers, Democratic Karen Buddhist Army representatives and government officials pledged to encourage and support…

Its early morning and grey mist and smoke from cooking fires covers the makeshift crowded bamboo huts that is Tham Thin refugee camp. Small girls and boys dressed in a combination of white collared shirts and blue short or skirts tag along side their as they turn up for the first day of the new school year. Tham Hin is…

Access to education for Karen children is compromised by lack of schools, poverty, conflict, displacement, and low or no wages for teachers. Makeshift schools on the Thai Burma border often offer the only chance for young Karen to get an education. The sound of teenagers chanting in English and Karen echoes off the tin roof as teachers point to symbols…