Officials from respective township literature and culture committee said Karen literature teachers working in government schools in Hmawbi, Taikkyi, Htantabin, Twante, Kawhmu, and Kungyangon townships under the Yangon Region have not received equal pay in the 2017-2018 academic year.

According to them, some teachers received seven-month salaries in some townships while some only received four-month salaries in some townships.

“In our Hmawbi Township, the Karen teachers were given four-month salaries with Ks 30,000 per month this year. We were told that Kawhmu Township received seven-month salaries. I don’t know why there is a difference,” Saw Thant Zin from Hmawbi Township Karen Literature and Culture Committee told KIC News on March 5.

The township Karen Literature and Culture Committee members said they had planned to ask the township education officer on this unequal pay issue of the Karen teachers, but they do not want to cause any misunderstanding.

“Everyone should receive equal payment. I won’t accept [the act of] giving more [salaries] for Kawhmu Township and giving the payment suitably in other townships. Everyone should be on the same level. Please send me a list of the salary differences in each township and those that don’t receive full salaries within a day or two. [I will make sure that] everyone is on the same level,” Naw Pan Thinzar Myo, the Minister of Karen Affairs said during a meeting with the officials from respective township literature and culture committees on March 5.

According to officials from the Yangon Region Karen Literature and Culture Committee, Kayin literature is taught at the lower primary level to over 2,000 students from government schools in the northern and southern districts of Yangon Region in the 2017-2018 academic year.