Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has ordered teachers and students at international and other private schools to salute the national flag and sing the national anthem every school day, according to the junta’s education minister Dr. Nyunt Pe.
He told a meeting of private school supervisory committees on Thursday that Min Aung Hlaing instructed him to ensure that the national flag is saluted and the national anthem sung at all private schools.
The national anthem order follows a private education law signed into effect by the junta boss last May. It requires private schools, including international ones, to teach the Burmese language as well as the history and geography of Myanmar.
Last week, Min Aung Hlaing stressed the need to imbue young people with a passion to protect race and religion (Bamar people and Buddhism) when he met members of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association in Yangon. The coup maker is a lifetime honorary patron of the nationalist association.
Young people today are committing subversive acts instead of contributing to nation building, he said, referring to their involvement in the People’s Defense Forces fighting his regime.
The anthem order targets international schools, the founder of a private school in Yangon said, explaining that other private schools only teach curriculum developed by the education ministry. “Even if we don’t ask students to sing the national anthem, we play it on speaker. The recent [anthem] order is targeted at international schools that teach an international curriculum,” the school founder said.
A teacher at a private school in Yangon asked whether Myanmar, under the current dictatorship, actually enjoys the freedom, justice and equality the national anthem celebrates.
Following the 2021 coup, many parents boycotted public schools controlled by the regime and sent their children to international and other private schools.
The military coup took place while the parliament of the since-ousted National League for Democracy government was discussing the private education law.
The private education law enacted by Min Aung Hlaing bans teaching politics and religious matters that are against the country’s policies as well as anything that is “against Myanmar culture.” The law also demands that teachers at private schools show loyalty to the country, and abide by the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.
Observers say the regime is imposing such restrictions because it fears that private schools will nourish anti-dictatorship sentiment among students and that students will prefer democratic norms. Many teachers now in the private education sector were involved in the Spring Revolution against the regime.
As the regime attempts to control private schools in major cities, it is bombing classrooms in central Myanmar and ethnic states where it faces armed revolt.
