Mon Students Propose Law Guaranteeing Ethnic Language Teaching

Originally appeared in Burma News International

November 13, 2014

The Organising Committee for the Mon State Students Union will propose that all ethnic students should be given the right and opportunity to study their own ethnic language in school according to Organising Committee member Ko Phone Myat Moe.

The proposal will be made at the All Burma Students Emergency Conference being held at the Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS) in Rangoon (Yangon) on 12th and 13th November.

The conference has been organised by the All Burma Federation of Students Unions (ABFSU) and the Yangon based University Students Union. It aims to amend the draft National Education Bill before it becomes law.

Ko Phone Myat Moe said: “We will discuss giving ethnic nationalities the opportunity to learn their native language in middle and high school. We are also requesting suggestions from ethnic scholars and writers.”

He said they will also discuss why ethnic students have less opportunities than Bamar students to study popular subjects at university.

Ko Ye Yint Kyaw, the information officer for the ABFSU said: “We will discuss all sections of the Draft Educational Bill.”

He explained that as the discussions will cover all of the Draft Educational Bill the teaching and learning of ethnic languages will have to be discussed, because it relates to all states and regions.

Representatives of student organisations from across the country will attend the conference. On the final day of the conference, after all the discussions, they will decide on a plan of action.

Originally, it was planned to hold the conference at Kha-Wel-Chaan School for the blind in Rangoon (Yangon) but it had to be moved to the FFSS after the authorities put pressure on the school not to host the conference.

View the original article here.