Myanmar’s ‘alternative’ exams a major test amid bombs, blackouts

Students study by candle light at an alternative school outside the military-controlled system [Courtesy of Karenni Praru]

On a morning in March, during a pause in fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces, 60 students gathered secretly in a village in western Myanmar to take their university entrance examinations.

Without internet access, they huddled around portable wireless devices; rather than sitting in classrooms, they crowded into people’s houses. There, they answered two hours of multiple-choice questions on their mobile phones before quietly returning home as if it were an ordinary day.