Local Education Minister forces students to buy school materials

Commencing from the 2011 academic year, the local education minister of Manton Township, Northern Shan State has been forcing students to buy school materials in all schools within Manton Township.
Education staff from every school in the area has been given notebooks from the education minister ordered to sell a dozen notebooks per student.
“There are over one hundred students at my school. We discovered some schoolchildren are really deprived and have no money but because of the pressure from the seniors we are not in a position to do anything for them” said an education staff.
The notebooks which they are forcing schools to sell are of very low quality. However, the education minister sells them at a price of 1,800 Kyats per dozen even though the cost of the notebooks in private stores is 1,400 Kyats per dozen. It is even worse for students from remote areas, they are getting charged an even higher price for the notebooks from 2,000 Kyats to 2,500 Kyats per dozen.
“It is an untenable situation for me to buy note books at high price for five children.  I pleaded with the school to let me spread out the cost of the notebooks as I have many children but I had to buy them in order for my children to be able to attend school” said a local woman.
Due to the local tea price getting lower, we now face a more difficult situation in sustaining our livelihood and then on top of that we have to buy school stationary from the education minister at higher price than necessary. Even though it is a problematic satiation for us to send our children to school as it is.
Currently, there are 70 public schools and 40000 students studying within in Manton Township.