BURMESE refugees living on the Thai-Burma border are to be offered the chance to study for online degrees and certificates by an Irish college.

The Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Co Louth is launching a virtual college for the minority Karen people, who fled to Thailand to escape civil rights abuses in Burma.

The DkIT will offer online degrees and certificates to some 30 Karen students in the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

Students will study modules on politics, sociology and community development by watching lectures streamed into the refugee camp over the internet.

Margaret Clarke, a spokeswoman for DkIT, said technology provided a way for the college to offer individual learning programmes to suit the Karen refugees. She proposed the on-line course last October after hearing a talk by Niamh De Loughry, a Dublin woman who has worked with Burmese refugees for four years.

“The course looks at issues of identity, culture and community,” said Clarke. “We have taken our existing courses and are adapting them for students who live in Mae La, which has a population of about 50,000.

“There is a well-developed primary and secondary education system in the camp but there isn’t a lot of third-level programmes which have internationally recognised qualifications. So we are hoping to try and bring accredited online courses to the camp, which will hopefully enable the students to help their own community.”

Course supervisors in Ireland will check up on students through long distance calls, virtual tutorials and by e-mail.

“Although the camp has relatively good facilities, it is our hope that students in the class will all log on together and watch the lectures simultaneously,” said Clarke.

Students who wish to join the course will have to pass an English test to ensure their language skills are sufficient to pass exams.

Sgaw Karen is the main language spoken in the refugee camp but many students have English. Staff from DkIT are due to travel to northern Thailand in September to assess the needs of students.

The Karen National Union (KNU), the Karen’s government in exile, has promised to assist DkIT and promote its courses.

More than 100,000 Burmese refugees, mostly Karen, have fled to Thailand to escape what they say is ethnic cleansing by the Burmese junta. They say their villages have been burnt and they have been shot, raped and tortured by the army.

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