Myanmar’s regime in Naypyidaw has launched a new initiative to draw children who abandoned their education following the February 2021 coup back into the state school system, offering a specialized placement test for primary and middle school dropouts.
Announced on Wednesday by the Ministry of Education’s Department of Basic Education, the initiative targets children aged 7 to 15 who left the system between Grades 2 and 9. The placement tests will be administered at township-level Department of Myanmar Examinations offices from June 15 to 20.
According to the ministry’s May 20 statement, the test dictates grade placement: if a student passes, they will be permitted to enroll one grade above the level they previously attended. If they fail, they will re-enroll at their prior grade level.
“My son will have to take the placement test to determine whether his grade is eighth or ninth, as he’s old enough for middle school,” a parent of a child who left school in the fifth grade told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
The ongoing education boycott
Following the 2021 military takeover, millions of students and educators abandoned state-run schools as part of the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), refusing to participate in an education system controlled by the military. For many, that boycott remains firmly intact.
A 24-year-old man in the Yangon Region, who left his Grade 10 studies in 2021 in direct opposition to the coup, told DVB that he refuses to return to the classroom until democracy is restored in Myanmar.
A system in crisis: The numbers
Independent data highlights the staggering toll the political crisis has taken on Myanmar’s education system.
According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar), an independent think tank, only 6.1 million students enrolled for the 2025–26 academic year that began in June. This represents less than half of the country’s estimated 13 million school-aged children.
The stark contrast between pre-coup and post-coup enrollment is evident across multiple metrics:
Even before the 2021 coup, retention was a severe issue. Regime media recently reported that over the past decade, out of every 100 students who entered kindergarten, 80 dropped out before completing their basic education, with only 20 ever reaching the matriculation level.
