Accessible Education for Burma’s Ethnic Children – Would You Walk Four Hours to Go to School?

By John West / Burma Link

Ethnic Kayan children in the middle Kayan region inside Burma go to extreme lengths for their education – literally.

These children spend four hours every day walking through the jungle just to be able to go to school.

An inside source, asked to remain anonymous, told Burma Link that most of these Kayan students are between 9 and 12 years old.

“They have to walk for two hours to get to the school every morning from their village. And then they have to walk back to their villages after school. Sometimes these students have to sleep in the field huts to be closer to school.”

“It is really difficult for them, especially when it is raining. The children say they get wet and do not feel well at school.”

In Kayan areas, it is common for children to have to walk long distances to school.

“Many villages only have primary schools and some villages don’t even have primary. Furthermore, there is only one high school in the whole middle Kayan region in southern Shan State. They only have a few middle schools and private primary schools,” the local source says.

“The students are suffering many problems because they have no schools in their villages. Some can stay with their relatives but most of them have no place to stay.”

With education out of reach to so many Kayan children and youth, scores have stopped going to school. Others are forced to either stay with their relatives or walk for hours on end, like these Kayan children.

Kayan are a subgroup of ethnic Karenni people, most well-known for the practice of extending their necks through the use of brass rings.

Most ethnic Kayan people live in southern Shan State, but many have also escaped lack of opportunity as well as Burma Army run human rights violations across the border to Thailand.

Images below show the school and the narrow pathway that these children spend fours hours walking every day.