Schools in ethnic army-controlled areas near Myanmar’s borders with Thailand and China have been operating regularly throughout 2020, even as most schools have been closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, RFA reported.

Though all schools across Myanmar are closed due to the pandemic, schools in territory controlled by the Mon ethnic armed group, as well as others in Kayin state and Tanintharyi region, are open.

Authorities from the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an opposition party that signed the Myanmar government’s nationwide cease-fire agreement in 2018, said that Mon national education schools within its territory in Mon state have remained opened because they believe that students and teachers are not at risk of infection.