Venerable Kusala, the abbot of Natmauk Monastic School in Thaketa township [in the southern part of Yangon], said his school had improved in both teaching and students’ learning since it was founded in 1992 but has faced funding problems…A total of 486 students are enrolled at his monastery – 250 of them stay there as boarding residents…He said they provide free tuition, meal and board for all students. They spend an average of K1000 [less than one dollar] a day to provide the three meals for each student. Each teacher is paid K23,000 [about nineteen dollars] monthly.

– Extracted from Nyunt Win, “Monastic schools play important role”, The Myanmar Times, special feature for the month of March 2008 on “Education: The key to the future”.