Myanmar to start new education department for Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar will open a new education department for Rohingya Muslims attending Sittwe University at Takka Pyin village in Sittwe township.

The Ministry of Education will open the new department at Takka Pyin sub-high school.

It will cater to Muslim students enrolled in Yangon University of Distant Education's sub-department located in Sittwe, also known as Sittwe University.

"They have difficulties to attend Sittwe University so we opened a new department for them. Our department wants to provide education to them," Myanmar Times quoted director general for the Department of Higher Education U Thein Win, as saying.

Currently, the education department has plans to appoint seven teachers.

On Monday, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed two agreements on border cooperation to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis.

A delegation led by Bangladesh Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan went to Myanmar to discuss border security and the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, who fled the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Following the meeting, both countries signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on improved border cooperation, including frontier liaison offices.

"The repatriation of those who fled to Bangladesh still needs further negotiation between us," Myanmar's permanent secretary for home affairs said.

More than 5,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar security forces launched an operation in response to the alleged attacks by militants on August 25 against 30 police posts and a regimental headquarters.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali said a total of 3,000 Rohingya refugees were killed since the army crackdown.

On October 12, a United Nations' report based on interviews conducted in Bangladesh found that brutal attacks against Rohingyas in the northern Rakhine state have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar, but preventing them from returning to their homes.

The Rakhine state is home to the Rohingya community of Myanmar, ethnic Muslims, who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the extremists.