“The progress and decline of a country are directly related to the education system. When children are currently deprived of the opportunity to study and the safe environment in which they can study, it must be said that the progress of the country will be greatly delayed,” a CDM teacher commented sadly.

The long-term lack of access to education makes youths feel uncertain about their futures. Year after year, the time spent learning is very short.

Children and young people who are deprived of the right to education will have to struggle very hard to continue their education, and even that opportunity is gradually diminishing.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the Universal Human Rights Day.

There are 30 articles in the Declaration of Human Rights, and among these articles, everyone has the right to education. Therefore, according to the Declaration of Human Rights, all have the right to education and the elementary and fundamental stages must be free and should be compulsory.

“At a time when our country is in a failed state, we need to seriously resolve the issue of education. No matter how the country decays, I believe that children’s safety and freedom of education must be created as much as possible,” said the CDM teacher.

However, before the COVID-19 period and even before school closures, school-aged children in Myanmar faced many barriers to access to educational opportunities.

Before the military coup, 1 out of 10 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in Myanmar were unable to attend school, and 3 out of 10 children aged 15 were unable to go to school, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Myanmar.

The reasons for the loss of access to education for children are poverty, being forced into child labor, migration, natural disaster risk, regional instability, inadequate basic education schools, lack of educational opportunities for disabilities, transportation difficulty, and differences in parents’ interest in their children’s education.

” I see the number of homeless children has increased during the COVID period. I have not investigated whether such data has been collected. There may be some surveys for this. Mainly, the number of homeless children is increasing when the economy is in chaos, and from that, there is no more food. I see there are more homeless children,” said the founder of a free study group for street children named Ye Chan Zin.

In addition, according to the designated area for relevant schools, there is a school per two miles for the mountainous areas and a school per three miles for flat areas. But, the distance between school and home becomes a barrier to school attendance only for children in rural and mountainous areas.

Heavy rains, flooding, bridges broken, and blocked roads in rural areas also obstruct children from going to school.

“These children’s lack of rights to education is a big problem for the long-term society. It’s a real problem that needs to be solved effectively. But why do we ignore it? The right to education is only on paper. To implement it in practice, I think it is first necessary to create an awareness that it is the responsibility of every person in our society to ensure that these children have the right to education,” he continued.

As a result of such issues, education opportunities are reduced, especially in rural areas, and children are forced out of school and forced into inevitable child labor.

“If there is an increase in uneducated illiteracy, it will be the same as situations in the past. We may be subject to a lot of arbitrary manipulation by dictators. There will be more conflicts. Human resources will be scarce. I believe that there will be many difficulties in implementing a system. I believe that the military group pushed to make this situation happen,” said a CDM teacher.

For more than three years since the military coup in Myanmar, civilians have been forced to flee their homes. Economic decline further. Conflicts are on the rise, leading to the loss of many livelihoods, and loss of access to education.

“The Myanmar military has committed unjust war crimes against the ethnic areas. The people of the affected areas have to flee the war. As a result, the children whom they gave birth to, had to flee war. So, the children were forced to go and live in the forests, mountains, and IDP camps, the farthest from the school premises. That’s why it can be said that children are losing their rights to education,” said a member of the Student Union of the West Yangon Technological University (WYTU).

Due to the uprising and instability of politics and the military that resulted from the military coup, schools are closed in some areas of Myanmar. Since education is interrupted, it will greatly impact not only the education and hopes of children but also the future intellectual power of the country, as well as skilled labor resources and productivity.

An entire generation will continue to face significant challenges in acquiring the skills and knowledge needed to build and develop a workforce capable of intellectual power and modern productivity.

“Everyone should have the right to education. This is a right held by the whole world. However, in Myanmar, except for some big cities on the mainland, most people are afraid of the military airstrikes in the rural areas and local towns. When there is a lack of security to open permanently schools for children, the children will not be able to fully enjoy the knowledge they should have at school,” said a CDM teacher.

UNICEF Myanmar published in 2022 May that the education of nearly 12 million children and young people in Myanmar has been delayed due to the current political crisis and war resulting from the military coup, and COVID-19.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, 851,524 students took the matriculation exam in the 2018-2019 academic year, and 970,759 students in the 2019-2020 academic year, under the NLD-led government before the military coup.

“Before the military coup, there were about 1,000,000 students who took the matriculation exam every year. This year, only 100,000 took the exam, so it declined to about 1 in 10. We have a basic education evaluation done by the NUG’s basic education department. There are at least 80,000 or 100,000 students who took the exam there. We manage them online. We have been working on this portal since 2021,” said a Chief Information Officer -CIO of the NUG’s Ministry of Education.

After the military coup, in the 2022 – 2023 academic year, there were only around 300,000 students who took the matriculation exam, which is a decrease of more than 80 percent compared to before the coup.

Moreover, according to the Junta’s Ministry of Education, there are 137,229, students who take the matriculation exam in Nay Pyi Taw and various Regions and States, in the 2023 – 2024 academic year. Therefore, it is obvious that the education sector is badly affected.

However, many students leave the schools under the military regime and go to the federal schools of the National Unity Government (NUG).

“There are online schools, ground schools, ethnic local schools that we cooperate with. We also have CDM teachers going there. Also, there are more than 800,000 students in basic education in the border area schools. The data that we were able to collect from the NUG side was last in February. There are from KG to G 12. That data is the schools we relate to. If we take into account the schools under KIO and schools under Kayin education, the education provided by the NUG, and ethnic groups would be more than the military regime. The regime will be only as a total ground school,” he continued to explain.

There are many people enrolled in the online system and ground-based schools that will be provided by the NUG’s Ministry of Education, but on the other hand, there are still burning down of homes, air attacks, shootings with heavy weapons, arrests and killing of civilians by the military regime facing the failed coup.

“Under the military education system, truly democratic education systems and the frameworks set by the educational community cannot be achieved. That’s why we are against military education. We joined CDM. How we move forward in this situation, we have to participate in the current revolution in all ways. We are starting to make good connections in the interim education system being implemented by the relevant NUG’s MOE so that students do not lose their right to education as well as participate in the revolution,” said a member of the WYTU student union.

According to the latest humanitarian bulletin released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Myanmar (UNOCHA Myanmar), more than 2.6 million people across Myanmar are internally displaced, and about 18.6 million people need humanitarian assistance since the military coup until the end of 2023.

“Due to the current conscription situation, I’m thinking of going abroad and working a suitable job first. I also plan to learn some languages online while working abroad. I wanted to attend NUG’s School of Education, but I didn’t attend it for various reasons. Later, depending on the situation in the regions of Kachin, Rakhine, and northern Shan State, I hope to be able to attend the remaining final year in those regions together with my friends,” said a CDM student in the final year of Internal Relations (IR).

After the military coup in Myanmar, there are 936 civilians killed and 878 injured due to military airstrikes throughout the country, according to the records compiled from February 2021 to December 2023 by the Nyan Lin Thet New Research Group, which monitors Myanmar’s political processes.

“Currently, it is unable to access education in the areas where the fighting is going on. Some people are losing the right to education because of the insecurity of the area and because they are poor and cannot afford private schools, and tuition. It is difficult to say about the loss of the right to education according to regions. After the military coup, most of the schools were closed and until now they have been deprived of the right to education. Some people are trying in various ways not to lose this,” said Ko Yaw Na Thai, the on-ground manager of the Dawna-Tanintharyi IDP Support Group.

From February 2021 to December 2023, the military junta reportedly carried out about 1,652 airstrikes across the country, destroying 137 religious buildings, 76 schools and 28 hospitals.

“As a consequence of the military coup, the armed revolution across the country has grown up against the dictatorship. Due to the consequences of the war, almost half of the regions are suffering the loss of general basic human rights such as education, social, and health. This is a nature for loss during war. That’s why I hope to be able to work together to create a society that will help the children’s education as much as possible,” added the IR final-year CDM student.

As a result of worsening conditions, children are losing access to education and being targeted in attacks. People are facing a higher level of danger due to forced recruitment to replenish the depleted force by the military junta, arbitrary arrest and detention, and serious human rights violations and abuse of rights.

UNESCO, UNICEF, and Save the Children issued a joint statement on May 20, 2021, that always keeping places of learning safe, and ensuring continuity of learning, must be a priority for Myanmar. The lack of access to a safe, quality education threatens to create an entire generation in Myanmar that will miss the opportunity to learn. This is something that we cannot and must not accept at all.

The consequences of losing the right to education for youth development and prospects are growing and opportunities for safely continuous learning are still to be threatened.

Therefore, it is essential to ensure children, parents, and teachers are safe to learn and teach, and teachers are included in all learning support staff, academic staff, and volunteers.

Not only successive Myanmar governments have failed to comply with the standards in the Declaration of Human Rights, including Article 26 that everyone has the right to education, but also the current military regime has failed to follow human rights standards, as well as treating the people with human rights violations, including education.