Thinzar New, Narinjara News, 20 June 2024

Nearly 600 high school teachers from Arakan State are forciblytransferred to the mainland without any prior notice or official transferorders.

A male employee informed Narinjara News that the list was postedat the State education office in Sittwe.

"Currently, the list of those high school teachers has beenhanged at the Sittwe education office. My name is also  included in thelist, but I did not receive any prior notice,” he added.

Although reports surfaced that nearly  1,200 high school andmiddle school teachers were transferred from Arakan State, the current listincludes only 600 teachers who have been  transferred to Bago, Magway andAyeyarwady regions.

"The government has not paid salaries to them for a longperiod. I don't know why. We are in a very difficult situation. I have decidednot to go,” said a teacher who is transferred to Bogale town under theAyeyarwady region.

At least nine townships of Arakan State and Paletwa of Chin Statewere recently captured by the Arakha Army (AA) fighters, following which manyschools were closed down and hence thousands of teachers are not getting theirsalaries.

Narinjara News tried to contact the State education office bytelephone, but failed.

Due to ongoing conflicts in the Arakan region, a large number ofState government employees, including the teachers, had left their jobs becauseof security reasons. Many employees prefer to remain absent in offices.

Meanwhile, the department heads instructed senior officials,including the education and administrative staff- who fled due to fear ofgunfighting in Sittwe, to return by 25 May.  If they had not returned,they were considered to be a part of civil disobedience movement (CDM). Somestaff members definitely returned to Sittwe on the date.

In the AA-occupied towns namely  Paletwa, Pauktaw, Minbya,Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Mrauk-U, Myebon and Ramree, themilitary junta had closed their offices and hence all schools turned closed. Onthe other hand, many schools in Sittwe, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Kyaukphyu andTaungup were closed due to the ongoing clashes.