National League for Democracy (NLD) party, AIDS Centre (NAC), In-charge Myint Zaw said that some schools have denied admission to some children from this Centre and some of these children studying in these schools were discriminated against in their classes.
The NLD AIDS Centre took six children from this Centre to a private pre-school for admission on 2 May and then this private school informed them about the rejection of their enrollment.
“This is absolutely inhumane. These children are not infected with any diseases. We can understand if they have some diseases. This is discrimination against the children from this Centre. The children are upset and dejected after hearing the rejection of their admission when they were ready to go to schools. We are also really disappointed with this case. Our Centre has many children here, some of them are infected and some of them are not infected with any diseases but they are here under various reasons,” NAC In-charge Myint Zaw said.
Myint Zaw added that the school rejected admission of two infected children and four AIDS-free children.
Teacher In-charge from this private pre-school, Win Win Maw, said that there was a separate school reserved for the children from this Centre and they had to reject the admissions of these children as it was impossible for them to have same class with other children.
“This is not a rejection of their admission. They are from the AIDS Centre and we are a privately-run school. There is a school specially reserved for the children from this AIDS Centre. This school is run by Social Welfare Department. They must go to this special school. It will not be convenient for other children to have same classes with them. The parents of other children will not accept it.”
Moreover teacher Win Win Maw added that the number of students brought to their school was not six but only four and they could accept these children in a separate class but they posted about this matter on social media so that the school would register a case against these persons.
NLD AIDS Centre (NAC) is situated in East Dagon Township, Yangon and it was established in 2002 by now lower house MP from Mingla Taungnyunt constituency Phyu Phyu Thinn. There are 68 children in this Centre and 48 children ranging from one-month old to 17 years old were reportedly sent to school for their education.
Founder of this Centre, MP Phyu Phyu Thinn, said that they had had experiences of such discrimination before and they were not only in education but also there were much more in other sectors.
“We realized that we need much more education and awareness programmes on this matter. Even in Yangon, we need such programmes. These children are normal children and they can live with other children. We need to educate these people there will not be infection from these children. Some of our children are studying from elementary level to high school level at government schools. It was really disappointing after hearing discrimination against our children,” lower house MP Phyu Phyu Thinn said.
Centre In-charge Myint Zaw said that they would try to get admission from other schools for these children who were denied by this private school. And he added that they were emphasizing on schooling and education for children who are staying at this Centre.