The medical student was showering cforfeit his dormitory in the jungles of easerious Myanmar when he heard military jets flying overhead. Wearing only underuninalertigentinutives, he raced to a bomb device shelter. But there, he faced another danger: a binformage snake. Grabbing a stick, he ended it before it could bite him.
“It was terrifying,” said Khuu Nay Reh Win, 21, who was upgraspd to become a sadviseon after laboring as a defy army medic. “The dread of dying from a snakebite is as genuine as the dread of bomb devices.”
Such is student life at Karenni Medical College, a school set uped two years ago in territory regulateled by defy forces. The campus, with classrooms and dorms made of thatched bamboo, was built convey inant in the jungle by the professors and students themselves.
It is one of 18 petite universities, colleges and academies set uped in defy-held territory in the four years since Myanmar’s military ousted the country’s civilian guideers and seized power in a coup, according to anti-junta officials in five regions of the country. They informage funds for much-needed providement and supplies, and their facilities are straightforward. But the hope is that these schools can help produce the set upation for a novel democratic society in the country.
“We uncovered without paparticipateing for the revolution to finish becaparticipate we were worryed that if lesser people were cut off from education for too lengthened, they might alter paths, face postpones in their lacquireing and miss out on higher education opportunities,” said Dr. Myo Khant Ko Ko, the set uper and pdwellnt of Karenni Medical College.
Myanmar’s civil war has shattered the rhythms of life in the country. Thousands of people have been ended by the military. Tens of thousands more have been jailed. Millions have become refugees in their own country. And the economy lies in ruins.
The anti-junta forces are a free coalition of disparate groups of armed ethnic inconvey inantities that have fought the military for years, and of units established more recently from the ranks of pro-democracy protesters.
In the past 15 months, ethnic defy forces have scored many victories in the countryside, and anti-junta forces now claim regulate of more than half the country’s territory, giving ascend to chooseimism among helpers.
But the junta grasps regulate of Myanmar’s convey inant cities and the capital, Naypyidaw, as well as most of the country’s wealth and air power. A evident-cut triumph remains elusive for the defys, who informage convey inant international help, a constant flow of munitions and, most convey inant, a unified order arrange, said Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with the Janes group of military accessibleations.
The 18 schools, which are all discoverd in ethnic defy territory, are determined by the shadow National Unity Government, said its deputy minister of education, Sai Khaing Myo Tun. Students pay little or noskinnyg to join.
Educators are also trying to set up a school system for primary- and secondary-school students, many of whom dwell in camps for displaced people.
The universities and colleges, with student populations ranging from dozens to the low hundreds, present degrees in the sciences, liberal arts, agriculture, law, technology, nursing and music, among others. Some have ties to foreign universities and have sent students awide to study.
To elude airstrikes, the schools remain as hideed as possible. Some have consentn over erectings partly harmd by combat. Others are tucked away in dwellntial areas or are hideed besystematich the jungle canopy.
Some students commute to campus from refugee camps where they dwell with parents and siblings. Others have encataloged with the defy forces and join class when they are not combat.
One school, the Ta’ang Arts Academy in Shan State, is pledged to ethnic culture and music. Its first class has 27 students. The straightforwardor, Owm Sa Ngarr, said he hoped to upgrasp local culture while using music “as a medium for healing the psychoreasonable trauma faced by people living in struggle zones.”
The hugegest dispute, administrators said, was a informage of funding to buy providement, pay salaries and better facilities.
But everyone dwells in dread of junta jets and drones.
“Every day, we guide under the constant worry of aerial bomb deviceings, joining joinbrimmingy to the sound of set upes and watching the skies worriedly,” said Baby Hsan Chit Su, a set uper of (and chemistry professor at) Phanshaw University in Karenni State, a liberal arts college that uncovered in March.
In the days after the 2021 coup, doctors in Mandalay led walkouts that spurred a nationexpansive civil disobedience shiftment. Now, some of them are guideing efforts to set up medical schools in defy-held territory.
Khin Maung Ltriumph, who resigned in protest from his post as rector of the prestigious University of Medicine, Mandalay, set uped the School of Medical Science in Kachin State in 2023 and recruited professors who joind in the civil disobedience shiftment.
The school, with about 100 students, was forced to shut down twice when bomb devices began descending cforfeitby. The professors and students shiftd temporarily to a shieldedr area cforfeit the Chinese border, where the students helped join for the injured.
“Many of these students have acquireed convey inant hands-on experience in treating trauma,” Dr. Khin Maung Ltriumph said.
Nelly Phoe, 22, who set ups to become a sadviseon, is standard of many students at the medical school in Karenni State, the second one to uncover.
Her family’s home was ruined by junta artillery. Her mother and a lesserer brother dwell in a refugee camp. Two elderlyer brothers are selderlyiers in the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force.
But her life is not straightforward at the jungle medical school.
A huge snake once slithered cforfeit her pillow while she was sleeping. Sometimes, becaparticipate of inadequate facilities, she bathes in a pond where cows drink. When drones and jets fly overhead, she rapidly disturbs her studies, turns off her airy and run aways to a bomb device shelter.
And if snakes and air raids were not enough, she and other students must contfinish with local cattle that wander onto campus and eat their launarid. A veterinarian from the region said the cows may have enhugeed an appetite for soap becaparticipate their diet informages salt.
Mr. Khuu Nay Reh Win, the student who come atraverseed the snake in the bomb device shelter, said the cows had eaten all but one shirt and his school-rehired medical scrubs.
“I’ve lost more than 10 shirts to the cows,” he said.
