Barely getting by: the tale of a monastic school since the coup
One of our local team members recently talked with an abbot of a monastic school in Sagaing. In Myanmar, monastic education sites function as a kind of holistic community center/boarding school that oversees the education of many children of poor and low-income people across the country. These sites serve children from different backgrounds, regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender, etc. Many parents across diverse communities are only able to rely on these monastic schools, which are run and operated by the compassionate Buddhist monks and nuns, as they had historically provided free basic education for any child. Although the previous national governments had announced, and attempted, to implement compulsory free basic education for all children over the last 10 years, it has not been able to cover the entire population of 10.5 million children of basic education students (primary level to secondary level) from age 5 to age 15 in Myanmar. [Ref: UNESCO Institute for Statistics] According to the statistics of a baseline survey made by Myanmar Education Consortium in the joint with Monastic Education Development Group (MEDG), there are 1,700 monastic/nunnery schools catering for around 300,000 children in 2013.
Most of the monastic and nunnery schools are not only providing free education, but also accommodating and providing all the children with meals as well. Some of these monasteries and nunneries are in fact de facto orphanages, comprised of students from different ethnicities. Additionally, the Buddhist monks and nuns look to find stipends for volunteer teachers to teach these poor children, in addition to providing for the children’s healthcare needs, too. Obviously, this is not a simple and easy task, but given the desperate needs that have exited in Myanmar after so many decades of neglect and willful destruction by successive military governments, they have tried to fill the gap as much as possible. Before, when Myanmar was in undergoing a democratic transition in the 2010s, this was more or less barely manageable. However, the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 followed by the 2021 military coup has stretched the monastic system beyond its breaking point, as you will see in the following interview. And yet even last year when COVID was raging and Myanmar was entirely shut down, under the management of the democratic civilian administration, many local lay-people and supporters could find ways to keep supporting these monastic schools for the most part. However, now after the coup in February 2021, the socio-economic situation has declined due to all the crises created by this terrible coup and brutal military regime.
The following conversation was conducted with an abbot who is providing 200 ethnic children with a free education, accommodation and food. As you will see, monastics schools like his urgently need support, and we ask meditators around the world to help in considering a donation we can send on to him. For those in country, donations can be sent via Wave to 09942359202. And for those foreign practitioners who have been wondering how these monasteries, nunneries, and monastic schools are faring, this is a valuable insight into how the day-to-day life has been affected within the monastic compounds since the coup was launched.
“I practice to weaken my ego through altruistic services for these children to be free from sufferings in their native areas.”
Better Burma’s local volunteer: How many boarding children are you providing with food until now?
Abbot: There are 51 novices and 3 lay-boys in my monastery.
B.B: What are the children now being taught, basic education or monastic studies, or both?
Abbot: We are teaching them both basic education and monastic studies in these school closure days. For example, on some days, we teach them the basics of Buddhist teachings, English Speaking class, Computer Basics and other handcrafts.
B.B: How is it currently going with the fund for maintaining the school and all student affairs?
Abbot: As you see, well, let’s not talk about this. (Laughing…) All of our people are facing hard times these days. So this is also not a good time to make an urgent cry to the lay-sponsors who are also in hardship and economic crisis. Definitely, we have to rely on these lay-sponsors, and yet these supporters now have such serious financial issues for their family. You can say that we as a school, and myself as the Sayadaw, are like the father of a big family of tens or hundreds of children, indeed. And like the father of a family, we cannot groan in front of our children. Meanwhile, we have to think and take all the options for our children to survive. However, sometimes, we also have to make hard decisions. For example, in my monastery, there were over 200 ethnic children before the pandemic, in early 2020. Yet now, I had to make a terrible decision, with sorrowfulness in my heart, to request the communities of some fatherless or motherless children to take them back to their native areas, so that I could find a way to continue accommodating the orphans who have no support whatsoever, as well as those ethnic children whose native areas are completely unstable due to the armed clashes between Myanmar military and ethnic armed forces. We are so sad to make this decision but no other better option, because we simply do not have the food to even feed them. In the normal days, we, the monks, receive offerings from the religious services with the invitation of the lay-sponsors, in addition to the four requisites of being a monastic. Definitely, all these offerings go to the children for their education, healthcare and other facilities. All the abbots and abbess who run monastic schools and nunnery schools, have the same spirit. After the pandemic, all the schools were closed to some extent. Yet even though these schools were closed, the cost of providing students with three meals a day was still manageable then. We didn’t have to send any vulnerable children to areas where we don’t even know if they’re going to be taken care of, like now. In addition, we could look after children when they are sick or unhealthy. Once we went to a nearby private small clinic, and it cost about 5-6 thousands kyats ($4) and the child had to stay there about 3 days to recover. You just imagine how big our responsibilities are.
B.B: What are your current challenges or issues, Venerable?
Abbot: Although we cannot open the school officially due to the current political instabilities in the country, especially in our region, we are still teaching these poor children for their continuous education without pause, and hence we have to supply them with stationery, learning materials, COVID-19 protective materials and all necessary items such as clothes, blankets (in this winter), detergent, soap, tooth-paste, etc. And for the boarding children we have managed to keep with us: we have to purchase all these for them as their parents cannot. Plus, I also have to find the funding for the stipends of the volunteer teachers, too. So thus, the expenditure is exceeding much more than the donations we receive. Normally we can solve this by collecting offerings which we receive from our regular religious services from our lay-sponsors. But now, there is nothing left. I don’t know how much longer we can survive.
B.B: How are you solving these issues now? What is your plan or solution for the future?
Abbot: As you can see now, for example, when we need detergent for the novices and boarding children to wash their clothes, we usually get it from local donations, so we did not need to even think about buying things like this. But now, we have to buy totally on our own, and we simply cannot purchase all these required items with our limited funds. So we have to find another option, instead. Although this is not something we like to do, we are now forced to consider other drastic options. For instance, my assistant monk and some older novices go around the town individually to try and make a specific plea to those supporters or even grocery stores who we think can still manage to support us, even a little. As for me, I have some relatives from my home village and I ask them to donate some food like beans or chick-peas and vegetables such as eggplants, tomatoes, etc. However, this cannot always be done. In the past, I had an area of agricultural land which I inherited from my parents, in my home village. It was rented it to a lessee. It was rented for a long time and they managed to direct the fund for my students’ survival. But now we don’t know how many more weeks we have left, so it was sold with all remaining profits coming to my school here, to see how long it can last. (At this short instant, I heard and saw a small sigh and the abbot’s sorrowful eyes.)
B.B: For the last question, have you got any expectation/hope to settle these crises down shortly? And, any hope for the children? Venerable.
Abbot: As we are monks, we can only send Metta to all sentient beings all over the world to be free from all the Three Catastrophes (pestilence, warfare and famine). According to the Pitaka (Buddhist) tradition, these catastrophes are happening now due to the lack of Dhamma of many beings in the world to stop their anger, envy, hatred, illusion, ego, etc. We know that these crises were born of one's ego which is the opposite of “altruistic spirit” and the enemy of Metta. So, we are practicing our Metta-bhavana (loving-kindness contemplation) to send Metta to all suffering people these days. I also have my own responsibility. I do not sit here just judging others. For myself, I practice to weaken my ego through altruistic services for these children to be free from sufferings in their native areas. Like the Bodhisattva, who practiced to be able to bear all the worldly conditions and seek liberation. Even the Buddha suffered a hardship of the scarcity of good-quality alms-rice during one Vassa (Rain Retreat) period in his time. Finally, it all went away. So, why not I can expect the time when these situations will end? Just one thing: please, may it end soon, for the children and many people who can’t go on much longer. (He stopped and was looking out of the hut where we are talking.)
This story was told by an abbot of a monastic school in Sagaing where 54 children remain, who are being provided with food and accommodation in addition to a free education. This message was sent by our local volunteer team in this region. Please consider helping such monks and nuns by contributing a donation to these monasteries and nunneries for the innocent children regardless of nationality, ethnicity and religion. For those in country, donations can be sent via Wave to 09942359202.