The
school has nursery to grade -6 with a total of 204 students from 4 different
ethnicities; Burmese, Karen, Muslim, and Rakhaing. There are 9 female and 1
male teachers at the school; 8 Burmese teachers and 2 Thai teachers. The
teachers are from different refugee camps, from migrant areas in Mae Sot, and
from Burma. Some of the teachers have finished University in Burma and some
have finished teacher training, such as the Teachers’ Preparation Centre (TPC),
Brighter Futures (BF) or Training of Trainers (TOT) in the refugee camps and in
the Mae Sot area. The Thai teachers have graduated from Thai Universities.
The
school uses Burmese curriculum, including Burmese, English, Math, History,
Science, and Geography and for the Thai curriculum they only use the Thai
subject. In addition, the school is working with School within School (SWS) and
IPD Burma education system. For example, grade 4 students have to take Burmese
government exam from Burma. Those programs are not for all the students. The
first priority of SWS is that the students who would like to join the program
should have Thai birth registration. In this year, 39 students are studying in
SWS at Wat Don Kayork Thai School and those students have to learn in Thai. The
rest of students are studying at Irrawaddy school because they don’t have any Thai
birth registration. However, the teachers give chance for students with Burmese
education system because when the students go back in Burma they can continue
their grade and recognize by government.
Irrawaddy
school has one big building and one small building. The small building is used
for nursery students and the bigger building is used for teacher’s room and it is
combined with the office, the cooking room is combined with the dining room, as
well as with the food store, the materials store and the classrooms. Five of
the classrooms are set up in a hall and divided by curtains to be able to use
as classes. The hall is around 20 feet wide and 80 feet long. Sometimes, they
use the hall for celebrations. The buildings are constructed of concrete,
eucalyptus, bricks, and zinc. It has already been used for eight years. There
is enough playground for the students inside the compound.
Currently,
Help without Frontier (HWF) takes responsibility for the teachers’ salary and
the school running costs. The school running costs are around 12,000 Baht per
month, but it does not include teachers’ salaries. The teachers’ salaries are
between 3,900 and 4,500 Baht for Burmese teachers and 8,000 Baht for Thai
teachers per month. Every year, the school has to pay 13,000 Baht for the land.
A Singapore group has provided the rent for two years. They make a rent contract
every two years.
.
The school provides lunch for
students. It is funded by a group from Singapore which is the same who provides
for the rent. They hire a cook who lives inside the school campus for 2,500
Baht per month. After this school, most of the students continue their studies
at Hsa Thoo Lei Orphanage Learning Centre, Pa Ra Mee and Children’s Development
Centre (CDC).
