The privilege of education

Ester is 18 years old, and one of six children from a small village in Chin State. For the early part of her education, she studied in her village with all classes being taught in the local Mara language. However, after Year 8 she needed to move to Secondary school, where all her lessons were conducted in Burmese, the main language of Myanmar. “I couldn’t really understand. I was learning the language rather than the subjects. Somehow, I managed to pass my Year 9.” 

Ester moved on into Year 10, which is when students sit their main school exams. Even though she had a better understanding of the language, the syllabus was more demanding. “The school was very good, but I lacked basic education from before, and I just could not pass my exams.”

In 2018, Ester found herself in the same matriculation year as two of her sisters. “Just before our results came out, a teacher called Peter visited our village and told us about the Education for All school that helps ‘repeater students’ like me. I started to hope that, if I did fail my second attempt, maybe I could join the Education for All School.” 

But when the results came, and Ester discovered that she had indeed failed a second time, her father told her that she needed to stop her studies. It is hard for families to keep children in school when they could be working. 

At that time, wonderfully, one of Ester’s cousins came to visit, and said that he would sponsor her to continue her studies through the Education for All project.