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Since the military coup of 1 February 2021, Myanmar has experienced a systematic assault on fundamental human rights — including the right to education. Schools and universities, once places of learning, debate, and protection, have been transformed into tools of control, violence, and military recruitment.
For the Myanmar military, education has long been seen as a threat. Students and universities have historically played a central role in resistance movements and pro‑democracy uprisings. After the nationwide student protests of 1988, all universities were shut down for two years. Following further protests in 1996 and 1998, campuses were again closed — this time for three years. Education, when it empowers people to think critically, has always been dangerous to authoritarian rule. The post‑coup period has pushed this repression to unprecedented levels.
University campuses — traditionally viewed as sanctuaries of learning — have been repurposed as military bases, detention centers, and surveillance hubs. Human rights documentation confirms that at least 146 educational facilities have been destroyed through airstrikes and arson under the military’s scorched‑earth tactics.
For indigenous women and girls, the barriers are even higher. Patriarchal norms within some communities prioritize male education or push early marriage as a perceived economic protection strategy, further limiting access to higher education for young women already living under conflict and displacement pressures.
From the perspective of educators, the crisis deepens further. Professors and teachers report unimaginable intimidation: constant military patrols around their homes, threats against family members, and relatives taken hostage to force the surrender of educators participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Under such conditions, Myanmar’s state education system has become functionally broken and morally bankrupt.
In addition to the coup’s impact on Myanmar higher education, a second blow came to aspiring students in 2025 when the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — ordered the suspension of the USAID Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program (DISP) specifically for Myanmar. This was a planned five-year initiative aimed at supporting over 1,000 students from Myanmar to pursue higher education. That program was abruptly halted, even as students were already enrolled in master’s, bachelor’s, and PhD programs.
Today, many state universities remain physically intact but largely empty, staffed by substitute instructors and attended by a small fraction of students.
Research across Southeast Asia consistently shows that education is one of the strongest protective factors against human trafficking. Its impact goes far beyond awareness campaigns.
Higher education provides:
Universities keep young people within supervised environments — physically reducing exposure to traffickers and recruiters who exploit isolation and economic desperation.
A university degree increases the likelihood of legitimate income, reducing the appeal of dangerous migration routes or job offers that promise quick money but lead to exploitation.
Education builds the ability to recognize deception, assess risk, and navigate complex migration systems — skills that are essential for survival in today’s trafficking landscape.
Studies show that formal educational attainment and legal citizenship status are far more effective at preventing trafficking than short‑term awareness campaigns alone. While knowing what trafficking is can help, it does little without real economic alternatives. In contrast, education offers lasting empowerment that continues to protect long after a campaign ends.
At Daughters Rising, we see every day how the collapse of education fuels cycles of poverty, displacement, and exploitation — especially for women and girls. When higher education disappears, trafficking networks move in.
Supporting access to safe, meaningful education is not only an act of learning — it is an act of protection.
By investing in education, we invest in futures that cannot be trafficked.
Education is not neutral. In Myanmar today, it is an act of resistance — and a lifeline.
With more than 75% of youth aged 18–24 now classified as Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET), Myanmar faces the grim prospect of a lost generation. This crisis is most acute in conflict‑affected regions such as Kayah (Karenni) State and Rakhine State.
Education traditionally provides structure to the transition from childhood to adulthood — routine, supervision, purpose, and pathways toward social and economic integration. Without it, young people enter a state of prolonged “waithood”: a suspended future marked by boredom, despair, and vulnerability.
This vulnerability significantly increases the risk of radicalization, substance abuse, unsafe migration, and human trafficking.
At Daughters Rising, we see every day how the collapse of education fuels cycles of poverty, displacement, and exploitation — especially for women and girls. When higher education disappears, trafficking networks move in.
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