Financial woes for Mon State parents due to High School “tuition” fees

June 17, 2015

With the start of the new school year, parents have expressed concerns about costs surrounding extra “tuition” in Mon State’s High Schools.

“Tuition” is a common practice in Burma, where teachers, or sometimes others outside the school system, charge fees for extra lessons after school hours. Tuition has reportedly become the norm throughout Burma’s schools, with regular school classes considered insufficient to prepare students for exams without being supplemented by extra tuition.

Parents interviewed by HURFOM detailed worries about excessive financial burdens placed on families by the costs of extra tuition. Families of High School students described feeling pressure to pay for extra tuition, or else see their child put at a disadvantage and at risk of failing exams.

Nai Hla from Phae Doe village, Mudon Township, father of a Standard 10 student, explained, “If we have High School students in the house we feel really worried because, even if we don’t have enough money to buy food, we need to work hard to get money for our children’s school costs. If we can’t provide [costs for extra tuition] our children will not pass their exams. If they don’t pass we need to spend more money next year [for them to repeat the year], so it is really difficult for us.”

Nai Hla detailed that last year he paid 50,000 Kyat per subject for his child to attend tuition. However, he explained that this year he plans to pay an annual fee of 1,000,000 Kyat for his child to live at his teacher’s house and access regular tuition there. Another parent interviewed by HURFOM explained that many families end up sending their children to live at their teacher’s house to access regular tuition, given that this is usually cheaper than them seeking tuition elsewhere.

These new reports about tuition fees in Mon State High Schools follow wider concerns regarding access to education in Mon communities, as articulated in Inaccessible and Under-Resourced, a report released this month by HURFOM’s Women and Child Right’s Project. One parent discussed how tuition fees play into wider concerns over the accessibility of education, connecting high tuition fees to education dropout at High School level. She explained, “My child dropped out from school at Standard 9 because of tuition [costs]. My child couldn’t have tuition because we didn’t have enough money. Even if our child studied really hard in lessons he would never pass his exams without tuition […] He failed exams for two years because he couldn’t take tuition”.

As parents struggle with tuition fees, some have speculated that teachers are to blame for extra tuition becoming a necessity. Some parents allege that High School teachers intentionally fail to teach sufficient materials in the classroom, in order to personally benefit when students require extra classes.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News