Final-Edition

2) Families were unable to afford costs related to education (discussed in 2.1.2).
3) Livelihood difficulties created a need for families to migrate, taking their children out
of school (discussed in 2.1.3).
4) Poverty affected community
perceptions of education’s
value (discussed in 2.1.4).
2.1.1 Children
supplementing income
Maw Gyi village resident Mi Hong Mon
represented one case where livelihood
difficulties led to dropout because,
coming from a poor family, she felt
compelled to take her children out from
school in order to send them to work.
She explained:
“I have two sons. Neither of them
go to school because we are a
poor family. We have to struggle
for our livelihood. My husband is
a hard labourer. He works when people hire him to work on their plantation. He earns
6,000 Kyat per day, which is not even enough for our daily expenses. My sons work with
their father. They each earn 3,000 Kyat per day. If their father worked alone, it would
not be enough for our family. That is why my sons have to work too. I am pregnant now
and cannot work. We want our children to study, but due to the daily struggles in our
family we cannot afford for them to go to school.” 69
As discussed in Section 1.2 above, almost two thirds of the children interviewed detailed that
they were now helping to support themselves and their family with wages from local or
migrant work. In one case a 13-year-old, who had lived with her sister since her parents
migrated to Thailand, indicated that she needed to work in order to support her own food
costs:
“My parents are working in Thailand. I live at my sister’s house with her husband and
child. All my siblings are working in Thailand too…Although my parents work in
69
WCRP Interview No. 96, Maw Gyi village, Yebyu Township, 10/11/14.
37 Inaccessible and Under-Resourced