Rohingya Barred from Teaching as Residents Forced to Pay Rakhine Teacher Salaries in Maungdaw

By: Camp Correspondent

Maungdaw, Arakan State, July 12, 2025
Rohingya teachers in Maungdaw have been barred from teaching in local schools for the 2025–2026 academic year, even as educational institutions begin to reopen. Instead, the Arakan Army has directed community leaders to hire Rakhine teachers and to personally finance their salaries and living costs.

According to local school committee members, each village has been ordered to pay 500,000 Kyats per month for every Rakhine teacher, in addition to covering food and transport expenses. These costs were previously borne by the government, but since the Arakan Army captured Maungdaw in December 2024, the financial responsibility has been shifted entirely onto the Rohingya population.

“We are being punished for wanting to educate our children. They took away our teachers and now demand we pay for theirs,” said a Rohingya parent from central Maungdaw.

At least 15 Rakhine teachers are expected to arrive in various villages next week. Local residents have been warned that they will be held accountable for full payment of salaries. Rohingya teachers, meanwhile, have been told they may only return to classrooms after completing a 45-day mandatory training programme, the contents of which remain unclear.

In some areas, such as Harbi village, Rohingya teachers had resumed classes earlier on June 7. However, on June 20, Rakhine teachers appeared and informed local committees that Rohingya instructors were no longer permitted to teach, and demanded immediate salary arrangements.

“Education should be a right, not a burden forced upon the oppressed,” said a member of one village education committee. “Instead of supporting our efforts to rebuild, they are exploiting our desperation.”

Since assuming control of Maungdaw, the Arakan Army has systematically imposed new restrictions on the Rohingya community. Homes have been sealed off or confiscated without explanation. Movement between villages is blocked by military-style checkpoints. People are forced to pay fees simply to walk across bridges or ride motorbikes on local roads.

The Arakan Army began its military campaign in November 2023 and now controls 14 of Arakan State’s 17 townships. While it claims to oppose the Myanmar military’s abuses, the group’s actions in Rohingya-majority areas tell a different story. Residents face renewed patterns of persecution, displacement, and cultural erasure.

The right to education, once seen as a fragile source of hope in Rohingya villages, is now being used as a weapon of control.