On the 21st to 25th May, 2018, RISE (Rural Indigenous Sustainable Education) team visited some partners to be able to support TEES (Teacher Establishing Education Service) program for 2018-19 academic year. In these visits, RISE team met with 28 of Ta’ang TEES in Lashio, Shan North and 22 Naga TEES in Somra, Sagaing Region.
During the trip, RISE team main purpose was to support the TEES who were ready to disperse to respective communities and to motivate the importance role local teachers as change makers in limited education opportunities in most ethnic remote areas.
Lway Seng Non from TSYU (Ta’ang Student and Youth Union) expressed her feeling that, “I am very exciting to go again to the community school. As a TEES teacher, I also have to act like a leader and/or a nurse. Whenever the problem arises in the community, the leaders or the villagers come to seek an advise from me. Anyway, I enjoy my work.”
Within the RISE umbrella organization, there are 10 implementing partners, including Karen, Shan, Lahu, Ta’ang, Kachin, Kayan, Pa Oh, Naga, Zomi and Chin. The TEES program is aimed to encourage local community teachers to establish schools and schooling opportunities where there is no other educational access.
Lway Seng Non continued, “ I thought, I won’t go back to the community after my service last year but when I recall my memory with my students, it’s touched me to change my mind.” “I must go”, she added.
The RISE, formally derived from a project called EBCS (Eastern Burma Community Schooling Project), was initiated in 2011 and officially formed in 2016 with the aim to promote ethnic/indigenous teachers where there is no education opportunity in remote areas. In the RISE school statistic, there are (145) schools, (218) teachers and (9164) students in 2017-18 academic year.