These days education reform is deeply contentious inside Myanmar. Last week the Irrawaddy reported that more than 200 civil society groups have joined the National Network for Education Reform in rejecting the National Education Bill – which, though scheduled for further parliamentary debate, seems likely not long from now to pass into law largely unchanged. Among many key issues is ethnic groups’ demand that greater provision be made for mother-tongue instruction.

In this context, I was intrigued to read an interview conducted by Samantha Michaels, and published in the same issue of the Irrawaddy. It’s with Law Eh Moo, secretary of the Karen Education Department, which manages more than 1200 schools in Kayin State. The main point: between the national government and ethnic minorities, there’s a complete divergence of views about values, history and politics. “For example, they call us rebels or terrorists, and we also call them the same.” Moreover, in some areas it’s hard to see how any compromise might ever be made. “We are in a position to negotiate on some contents of our education – for example, the textbook subjects, how we treat geography, how the whole system operates, where we can integrate and meet with the government system, how to handle accreditation or recognize different levels. There are also things that are not negotiable, like how to treat language.”

Ultimately, in this area as in so many parts of the wider peace process, the central problem is a lack of trust generated by so many years of conflict and violence. “I think they don’t want us to get involved, and also we don’t want them to work in our areas. The work that we have been doing over decades does not exist in their knowledge. What they mean by ethnic education is the work of the government in ethnic areas. But they know nothing about the ethnic education work.”