Student organisations raised objections this week when military authorities announced that students whose matriculation test answers burned in a fire caused by the March 28 earthquake in Mandalay would have to retake the exam.
According to a leaked directive from the junta-controlled ministry of education, 376,956 answer scripts belonging to 62,954 students from Kachin State and Mandalay and Sagaing regions were destroyed when a building caught fire and collapsed at Mandalay University during the earthquake of March 28.
The Ministry of Education has scheduled a two-week crash course to prepare the students for the retake. There are reportedly similar plans for students to retake the exam due the loss of their answer sheets in Naypyitaw, the junta’s administrative capital, for the same reason.
On April 14, the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and the Yangon University Students’ Union (YUSU) issued a statement criticising the junta ministry’s decision as unjust to students.
The ABFSU said that the military regime, which is more concerned with indiscriminate attacks reviving its failing administrative machinery, has unfairly placed an additional burden on students by requiring them to retake the exam, and that the requirement must be opposed.
The loss of lives and extensive damage to property caused by the quake make it extremely difficult for students to retake an exam so soon afterwards, a male official from a monastic school in Mandalay said.
“Our school has many grade 12 students, and their answer sheets could have been lost in the fire,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Many of them are unwilling to retake the exam due to the difficulties they are facing.”
He believes that students whose answer sheets were destroyed in the fire should be granted passing grades without creating a disadvantage for those aiming for higher marks and distinctions.
According to a retired senior official from the education ministry, the loss of matriculation answer sheets at this scale due to a natural disaster is the first such occasion in Myanmar’s history.
“The students who are supposed to retake the exam are displaced and likely don’t have their textbooks or notes with them. How can they retake an exam they’ve already completed?” he said, before adding, “While retakes are not customary, the decision ultimately lies with the ministry.”
In 1956, during the government of U Nu, all students were granted passing grades after the Harry Tan incident, in which students protested the leak of 7th-grade government exam questions. Previously, under the so-called “moderation” system, students were given passing grades to meet the required matriculation pass quota.
Junta-controlled newspapers reported that the 2024-25 matriculation exam was conducted from March 17 to 22, with 220,843 students registered and more than 200,000 students sitting for the exam.
The Myanmar military has lost a great deal of strategically important ground in the country, especially in Rakhine, northern Shan, Kachin, Karenni, and Chin states as well as in Sagaing Region. It has also lost its Northeastern regional headquarters in Lashio, northern Shan State and Western headquarters in Ann, Rakhine State.
The number of students registering or sitting for the university matriculation exam has visibly declined in those areas of the country.
