School and Politics: Why I Chose a Different Battlefield

This article is also available in [Burmese]

"In a time like this, no one can leave the country. If you can, you must be a 'somebody.' While other young people are in the jungle, why are you posting things like this?"

This is a question I have to answer. Forget for a moment that I am writing this from the UK. Forget that I took the OSSD. Let’s go back to the moment I decided to go back to school.

I need to tell you why I chose this path.

Part 1: The Breaking Point - A Personal History

I once refused to attend school altogether. In a previous post, I wrote about my educational journey, but in short: after years of preparing for the Myanmar matriculation exam, the military coup happened just one or two months before I was due to sit for it. My entire world collapsed. I fell into a deep depression and grew to hate the very idea of "studying" with a burning passion.

How did I recover? Why am I here now?

I despised my studies because of the immense sacrifices I had made. From the middle of 9th grade, all through the suffocating silence of the COVID-19 pandemic, my life was reduced to a single purpose: the exam. While others were finding purpose in volunteering or dealing with the tragedies unfolding around them, I was a prisoner in my own home. It wasn't entirely by choice; my family, gripped by fear, wouldn't have let me go out anyway. From the start of the pandemic until the coup, every key to the outside world was taken from me.

Think about the atmosphere. I had given up everything. The friends I loved, the hobbies that brought me joy, the person I cared for—I put it all on hold, telling myself, "I'll get back to it after the exam." My days were a monotonous cycle of study and endurance. The food I ate? I had to force down things I didn't like. During the strictest COVID lockdowns, our home became a fortress. No new items were allowed inside without being quarantined outside for days. If we had to leave, it was in full PPE, masks, and face shields until it was hard to breathe. And despite all that fanatical caution, I still caught every single wave of the virus.

My world was analog and isolated. I had no digital devices. My parents, following the classic 10th-grade tradition, took my phone. "It's a distraction," they said. Yes, a tool can be a problem if you don't know how to use it. But you don't ban knives from a kitchen just because they are sharp; if you did, you couldn't even cook a meal. They put passwords on their own phones to stop me from using them. Of course, I’d find ways to steal a look, but then they’d just change the password again. It was a never-ending cycle of suspicion.

That was the environment in which I sacrificed years of my youth. Then, in a single morning, it was all rendered meaningless.

Part 2: Why I Grew to Hate "Studying" - A Critique of a Broken System

In that period of intense focus, I saw firsthand how rotted our education system was. It's easy to say "the system is bad," but the reality is a nightmare. Let me give you the most obvious examples.

• Geography: What should you learn? The nature of the earth, how storms form, how volcanoes and glaciers are made. But what did we learn? "Which factory produced what item? In which year? What was the quantity?" No one cares. But this is what they teach. It is knowledge designed to be forgotten, a process that kills curiosity and replaces it with drudgery.
• English: Most schools teach English by forcing students to memorize English-to-Burmese translations. No one learns a language like that. This method doesn't teach communication; it teaches students to be parrots.
• The "Book is Truth": You have to memorize the entire Biology textbook, word for word. You have to memorize grammar rules, consonants, and vowels. If you make a single spelling mistake, you lose your distinction. Is that right? This system doesn't reward understanding; it rewards blind obedience to the text.

This is not education. It is an exercise in compliance. It creates students who are afraid to be wrong, afraid to ask questions, and who eventually lose the desire to learn altogether. I grew to despise it all.

Part 3: A Different Battlefield - My Reason for Being Here

With this conviction burning in me, I decided I had to be a part of changing the education system. But what could I do? To be honest, even now, what I can contribute is small. But I knew that with a 9th or 10th-grade education from that same broken system, I would be able to do nothing at all.

So, I decided to leave the country. This was not an escape; it was a strategy. I took the necessary courses and created the opportunities that brought me here. There were other paths, but for me, this was the most feasible, the most helpful, the most possible way forward. I chose to fight on a different battlefield—one where I could gather the knowledge and skills needed for a real, long-term revolution in education. Our convictions may not be the same, but our target is one: to change our country.

I will not stop. I will fight this battle to the very end. When it is our children's turn, they will never have to experience what we went through. When it is our children's turn, I want to be able to say:

"Daddy was part of the revolution. It was terrible in our time. But it's better for you now, my daughter. You don't have to memorize anymore. You can ask questions. You can disagree. You can learn."

This is all I want to hear. And I will do everything in my power to make it happen.

Part 4: A Message for Those Still Searching for a Path

For the young people who have been in my situation, whose education is in pieces, I want to say this: you don't have to follow my exact path. But yes, if you are being forced to attend school in the current system, find a way to change. Everyone knows that education will lead to nothing. If you haven't started anything yet, find a suitable foundation, a suitable high school program, a suitable path. Create it. It will happen slowly; ideas won't just pop into your head. A path isn't found; it's built, one small step at a time. Start by talking to one person you trust. Ask one small question. That single conversation can open a door you never knew existed.

Don't worry. I was worried too. "I'm so far from education, what do I do?" "I don't want to become a product of this rotten system." As long as you keep trying and your belief is strong, a path will appear.

If you have gained something from reading this, I am satisfied. And I have one request: please, contribute to the good of our country from your own corner of the world. That is all I ask. Who said that school and politics are not related? The country's affairs are everyone's affairs.

If I were still in Myanmar, I would probably be somewhere in the south or the north by now. In an unsafe situation, every young person will find a way to a safer place. We will all move forward, step by step, from whatever position we are in. Don't worry.