Myanmar's military government has announced it aims to reopen public schools on June 1 but many teachers and students said they will refuse to return, in protest against the ruling junta that seized power in a Feb. 1 coup.
Catering to students rejecting to learn at schools supervised by the junta, the parallel government launched by pro-democracy forces in Myanmar said it is trying to establish an education system that enables them to learn from home.
A number of teachers and others engaged in education have joined the so-called civil disobedience movement to boycott work, as a protest against the junta. But the junta called on them to return to work and prepare for the reopening of the schools as it announced the restart on April 30.
The junta also said it will dismiss those who do not follow the call, maintaining its hard-line stance against protesters since the coup.
At a press conference in the capital Naypyitaw, junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said it will reopen public elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools on June 1, adding it has resumed classes of public graduate schools and the final year of public universities on May 5.
"It is a sad thing that some instigators and extremist political activists are campaigning for the students not to go back to the schools and are trying to stop reopening of the schools," Zaw Min Tun told reporters.
The academic year in Myanmar starts on June 1. But public schools in the country have been closed for more than a year since the ousted government led by detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi had decided not to open the schools in June last year as the country saw a surge in the coronavirus infections.
While the junta plans to reopen public schools amid efforts in normalizing the country, some 10,000 teachers and others engaged in education, which account for 60 percent of the total, are refusing to go back, according to teachers' unions in the country.
One teacher said he does not mind losing his job by boycotting work from June 1.
"I will keep on joining the civil disobedience movement until we win against the junta," he said.
A female junior high school student expressed anger toward the junta, saying, "How can we go to school under the military government that has killed hundreds of people and continued firing (at protesters)?"
Aiming to provide education to such students, officials of the parallel government called the National Unity Government are discussing what kind of educational systems are needed at this time.
Ja Htoi Pan, deputy education minister of the NUG, told local media that the parallel government is planning to authorize studying at home as a formal educational course.
The NUG, which was formed in mid-April and is comprised mostly of members of the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy party, has tried to rival the junta and restore democracy despite facing crackdowns including arrest warrants issued against NUG senior officials.
The junta's security forces have killed 788 people as of Saturday since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group monitoring the situation in Myanmar.
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