The junta is currently enforcing strict checks in Mawlamyine Township, Mon State, to ensure that educational staff who participated in the non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the coup, are barred from any teaching employment.
Junta authorities conducted field inspections of private schools and neighborhood tuition classes, conducting strict checks to ensure that CDM teachers were not employed.
In recent months, private schools have been forced to sign letters of commitment not to appoint CDM teachers. The junta has threatened not only to arrest the CDM teachers involved but also to close down any private schools that violate this commitment.
A CDM teacher said that the junta's intensified repression of CDM teaching staff has left them living in constant fear.
"Currently, the junta authorities are conducting surprise checks on private schools, specifically targeting CDM teachers. They have banned CDM teachers from working in these schools, and obtaining the necessary junta-approved employment documents is impossible for us. Therefore, most private schools refuse to hire us, and working as freelance tutors is extremely challenging. We live in constant fear, with oppression always looming,” she lamented.
She added that the junta's series of setbacks on the battlefields and the gradual collapse of its administration are likely prompting it to intensify repression on CDM employees, to deter government staffers from joining the CDM.
Another CDM teacher also condemned the junta's harsh surprise checks, stating that they are not only designed to block the employment rights of CDM teaching staff but also to extort money from private schools.
"In fact, not everyone working in private schools is a CDM teacher. It's clear that the junta authorities are using these measures to oppress and extort the founders and current staff of these private schools. In short, their main goals are twofold: to eliminate all income opportunities for CDM teachers like us and to extort as much money as possible from private schools,” he said.
The junta has blacklisted and oppressed CDM staff including teachers to make their livelihoods difficult, yet, at the same time, it has invited CDM staff to return to their original departments to work, as it struggles with a shortage of quality employees.
Sources among CDM employees reported that over 300,000 workers from education, health, and other sectors joined the CDM after the coup.
