Students were sent home, some said to have been flown back on government expense. Throughout last year, rumors spread that schools would soon reopen, but colleges are still shuttered. Many students have long given up on their education. This closure, after all, is the third in a decade. Since the junta took over, Myanmar's schools have been closed as long as they have been open.
Students stay home, working and waiting.
No one really has an answer. Disillusioned by their government, yet unable to change it, and discouraged by their fate, yet unable to escape it, Myanmar's future teachers, traders and leaders have been idle and embittered for over a year. As long as they are kept at bay, the country's longstanding social and political stalemate between its people and their rulers may never be settled. When demonstrations erupted in June 1988, universities were shut down. It was not until three years later that the junta reopened them.