SHAN STATE – The school committee members at Karla Federal School located in Pekhon Township at the border of southern Shan State and Karenni State said that the school has vacant positions for two high school teachers as the number of students enrolled has increased.
It is said that there were 113 students and 13 teachers in the past but the number of students rose to 150 in 2024 as the regional stability improves and thus the school needs teachers who can teach physics and chemistry.
“The number of students can increase even more. The security situation can be said to be normal now. We can still hear the sounds of battles in the distance but there is no danger. As it has not been long since the school is open, we expect more students to enroll,” said an in charge from the school.
Currently, the school is only teaching up to Grade 11 but plans to expand to Grade 12 if the donors and number of teachers increase.
The teachers at the present include CDM teachers as well as volunteers and the parents of displaced children provide them with a monthly salary of 200,000 Kyats, rice and oil.
Karla Federal School is an independent school and has not received any funding from the National Unity Government (NUG) or the Karenni State Interim Executive Committee (IEC) according to people in charge of the school.
There are over 100 independent schools operated by the NUG Ministry of Education, Kayan National Education Committee (KNEC) and Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY), providing education to more than 5,000 students in the Kayan Region including Pekhon Township, according to the CDM teachers teaching at those schools.