While every student who passed this year’s matriculation exams should take pride in their hard work, 19-year-old Shun Lae Wai Kyaw and her family are especially proud of her. Despite currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in Mandalay’s Obo Prison, Shun Lae Wai Kyaw not only passed the exam, but garnered distinctions in economics, history, and geography.
In an interview with the Irrawaddy, Shun Lae Wai Kyaw said she was simultaneously ‘overjoyed’ and ‘sad’ upon hearing the results, the first for obvious reasons and the latter because she knew that she would probably still be unable to pursue higher education.
Shun Lae Wai Kyaw was arrested two years ago when police found drugs at a store where she worked as a sales clerk. Because the store owner could not be located, Shun Lae Wai Kyaw was instead prosecuted and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Although she thought that would be the end of her education for the next decade, prison officials told her a year into her sentence that she could sit for the matriculation exams, and she resumed her studies along with 10 other inmates who also took this year’s exams. Of the 11, seven passed, with five of them earning distinctions.
Shun Lae Wai Kyaw told the Irrawaddy that on Saturday, she was allowed to call her family in Kachin State’s Shwe Gu Township and tell them the good news. She also said that the prison will hold a celebration next week in honor of everyone who passed.
Although it’s uncertain whether Shun Lae Wai Kyaw will be able to attend university in the near future, she hasn’t given up on her ambitions, saying: “I would like to go to the University of Economics… I want to enjoy the life of a university student like the others do. I want to be a tutor at the University of Economics after I graduate.”
She added: “I pray every day that the government officials will award us with a special chance to go to university like other students do.”
The annual matriculation exam is the sole determining factor in university acceptance in Myanmar. According to the Ministry of Education, 16 of the 41 inmates from Obo, Insein, Tharyarwaddy and Hpa-an prisons who sat this year’s matriculation exam passed.
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