NAYPYITAW, 16 October 2021, (TON): The military council is reportedly planning to reopen primary, middle and high schools as early as November despite continued threats of Pandemic and ongoing teacher strikes and student boycotts in accordance with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) aimed at toppling the junta.

Most schools were already closed at the time of Myanmar’s February 1 military coup. The junta attempted to reopen them nationwide on June 1, the start of Myanmar’s academic year, but more than half of the country’s 400,000 teachers were on strike and just 10 percent of the estimated 9 million students nationwide opted to enrol.

According to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation “more than 100 striking teachers have also been charged under the Penal Code’s Section 505a for incitement.”

Those schools that did reopen in June were later closed again on July 9 when the third wave of the pandemic hit the country.

However, a photo of a military council notice in Ayeyarwady Region’s Yegyi Township has recently gone viral online instructing the township education officer to prepare the schools to reopen in November.

While an official date for reopening has not been announced, the junta’s information team alluded on Wednesday that such an event was approaching but had been obstructed by anti-coup entities.