Forbidden Knowledge: Learning Undercover in the Shadows of Power
Thura perceives Spring University Myanmar (SUM) as an essential component in the broader movement opposing Myanmar’s military regime, the State Administration Council (SAC). He believes that SUM’s approach aligns with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) by actively rejecting SAC-controlled institutions, reinforcing the power of public refusal to cooperate with the military’s illegitimate rule. SUM not only offers educational continuity outside the SAC’s influence but also enables CDM professors and students to maintain their professional roles and integrity without compromising with the junta's system. In Thura's view, SUM’s operations are political by necessity, as choosing SUM is, for many students and teachers, a symbolic vote against military control and for the values of the resistance. SUM collaborates with the National Unity Government (NUG), an alternative government founded in opposition to the SAC, yet remains institutionally independent. Thura describes SUM’s relationship with the NUG as cooperative but autonomous, focused on aligning with the values of democracy and federalism. By maintaining this strategic independence, SUM upholds its role as a genuine alternative for students, untainted by military interference, which Thura sees as essential to SUM’s legitimacy and appeal. He emphasizes that SUM’s educational mission is not only to provide learning opportunities but also to contribute to the larger goal of dismantling the SAC’s influence over educational spaces and, consequently, public perception of legitimacy. Thura stresses that, for SUM and its community, education has become a political choice, a clear statement in favor of democratic governance and self-determination for Myanmar’s youth. Listen to his full podcast conversation here.
“Most of the time, at least from what I’ve seen at my own university and in my department, those who do not join the CDM also tend to be terrible teachers to begin with!”
Since the coup, people’s education has been politicized in a sense that, where you choose to study is now no longer a personal preference, but political decision of who you support and who you give your mandate to. Myanmar will soon be in the third year of the 2021 military takeover. There is still a very political component of why you do what you do. Actions such as continued calls for not supporting the any SAC apparatus, and supporting other alternative platforms like online schools, ethnic colleges and other ongoing activity that have no affiliation with the military. In the early days of the CDM movement, there were social punishments for anyone siding or being affiliated with the military. They were shunned from their social circles and some were even publicly ridiculed. Most of the time, it was mostly social and peer pressure from the social circles they belong to, that encourages them to stop supporting the military apparatus.
Now, in the almost three years of military takeover in Myanmar, some students have no choice but to attend the schools. Most of the students came from the poorest neighborhoods of Yangon and other rural areas. They were sent to state-owned schools partly because many of the parents needed to work outside during the days and so sending the kids to school is like daycare. If the kids take online schooling, they need someone to watch their kids and they cannot always monitor their kids in their online learning sessions. So, they have no choice but to send their children back to government schools, even though they hate the military to their guts. Plus, the boycotting calls against the military schools has gradually faded, but there is still a very strong resentment towards any military apparatus and only those with no other options would opt for that. Those who opt for the military institutions would generally stay quiet, and they do not make a big deal out of it. Most of the time, they are embarrassed and will not talk publicly about it. But, of course, there are some pro-military supporters in the country coming from pro-military families, and that is a whole other story we will not get into. Generally, people’s decision on education remains political, as well as having to deal with increasingly economic and financial hardships, and other real-life challenges and requirements that they need to address.
Regarding the issue of legitimacy on the educational domains of all political sides, both SUM and NUG publicly supports the CDM and we publicly announced that our courses are offered by CDM professors. Naturally, we are part of the political debate on education. The general consensus among the population is that studying at SUM means you are supporting the CDM. From that popular assumption, we receive trust and a sense of affinity from the students and the public. I think the real legitimacy issue, especially in this alternative learning platform, is that students need to be convinced of our quality of teaching. This issue is directly related to having CDM professors on our educational platform. If you look closely at any university, there are CDM professors and non-CDM professors, as well as CDM admin staff and non-CDM admin staff. Their differences go beyond just their political affiliations. Most of the time, at least from what I've seen at my own university and in my department, those who do not join the CDM also tend to be terrible teachers to begin with. The reason of the difference is all connected to them not having a spine strong enough to resist the military regime. So, the SAC universities are left with unqualified teachers. The numbers of teaching staff double down because most of the university faculties were dismissed by CDM professors. The SAC is now urgently trying to replace the staff with much younger and suspiciously unqualified teachers to just take up the empty faculty positions, who will listen to what the SAC education ministry has to say. On the contrary to the teaching staff of SAC universities, the teachers and professors in SUM are just wonderful at delivering lessons with their passion, their personal experiences with the subject material and engaging approach to teaching. I actually joined some of these faculty lectures. In conclusion, beyond that political affiliation and the affinity that comes with it, I think what really keeps the students going and coming back towards SUM and NUG would be the engaging quality of teaching provided on our platforms.
Still, there are so many limitations of online learning and there are many security protocols that we have put in place that unfortunately hinders an ideal learning environment. For SUM, our main approach is strengthening our educational system. Essentially, we aim to build a parallel system of education that will entirely replace the military-run education system. This goal feels a bit daunting and it does seem like such a huge challenge. But for anyone that was involved with the educational reform in the five years of NLD governance from the year 2016 to 2020, might feel that reforming bits and pieces of a national education system for a number of years, is as challenging as starting a whole new administration system from scratch.
With this new system, the NUG, the ethnic groups and SUM have come up with a federal education policy that outlines the vision and the values that they will be upholding in the new Federal Democratic Union.
In addition, there have been more facilitations among the local education providers and more joint projects with the ethnic education providers. Sometimes the joint projects are with the whole department, like KECD (Karen Education and Culture Department) under KNU. Sometimes, it is just with a college on the ground that we come across randomly and who likes what SUM is doing, and we would find some common activity to do together.
We also maintain a regular engagement with the NUG, not just the Ministry of Education. Since we are more youth-centric and our focus is on youth engagement and maintenance of youth participation and leadership in the spring revolution, we work with the NUG Ministry of Human Rights, the NUG Ministry of women, youth and children affairs, electricity, labor, and the Prime Minister's Office. We are not under NUG, we have our own board and management teams but, we do maintain close communication with the NUG and sometimes collaborate in their project.