Some 500 students organised by the students’ league staged a protest against the enactment of National Education Law in front of the city hall recently.The protesters walked from Yangon Railway Station to Maha Bandoola Park, and held a seated protest near Sule Pagoda.

The students criticised the law for centralising the education system, barring the students’ league, blocking independent university administration and limiting ethnic languages.

“We will continue staging our protest as long as the authorities have not amended the law. We want a law that can guarantee an education system equipped for democratic norms,” Kyaw Ko Ko, of All Burma Federation of Student Unions, said.

A student from the University for Development of National Races said: “Despite the weaknesses in the law, the government enacted it. We don’t believe the law can help educational progress. The people in the ethnic regions are experiencing the consequences of language difficulties and are being left uneducated.”