Myanmar puts off quartet talks on education law amendment

Myanmar has put off the planned second-day quartet talks on seeking amendment of the National Education Law, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday in Nay Pyi Taw, according to a press release of the meeting.

The quartet talks will be postponed to resume after Feb. 12 once thorough pre-coordination on the form of holding the talks and the agenda are ready, the release said.

The first-day meeting agreed to a date to be set later by the student side for resuming the quartet talks.

The government side clarified that the postponement of the second-day talks was to avoid undesirable crisis arising out of differences over the form of the holding of the talks.

According to local media, protesting students, who promised to suspend their protest march during the period of talks, have resumed their protest march from different regions to meet in Yangon.

The first-day quartet talks was held at Yangon University Sunday following Jan. 28 agreement reached between the government delegation and protesting student representatives.

The talks, involving the government, the parliament, Myanmar National Network for Education Reform (NNER) and Leading Committee for Students March Protest, were to touch on 11 points raised by student to be included in the amendment.

The 11 points demanded by the students side mainly call for recognition of legal formation of the Students' Union and Teachers ' Union, inclusion of representatives of students and teachers in drafting the education law and by-laws, budget allotment for education.

During the period of talks, the students have suspended their protest march.

On Jan. 21, hundreds of students started a protest march from Mandalay to Yangon but was stopped by the police in Taungtha town on Jan. 27.

Mediated by related education officials, the government and the striking students agreed to hold the quartet talks.

Mymnmar students have staged demonstrations since September last year against the national education bill passed by the parliament in July that year.

The protest later spread from Dagon University in Yangon region to other universities in Mandalay and Sagaing regions.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said it would submit a bill to the ongoing parliament session demanding amendments to the National Education Law. Endi