IT IS NOT widely known that throughout the country there are schools where the students gather regularly before class in their green and white uniforms to sing the National Anthem before a military officer. The officer is their headmaster.
Ministry of Education reports indicate that there are more than 20 of these cantonment schools, which offer classes from first standard to matriculation. The schools are funded by the Department of Basic Education and teach the standard state curriculum, but are run by military officers and overseen by the Tatmadaw.
Although it is difficult to determine exactly when the schools were launched or came under military administration, military and education sources say it was “probably” late in 1988, when the Tatmadaw seized power from the Ne Win regime and crushed the 8-8-88 national uprising.