60,000 Myanmar students must retake exams burned in quake blaze

People line up for food aid being distributed in Sagaing on April 3, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. The shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28 flattened buildings across Myanmar, killing nearly 3,000 people and making thousands more homeless. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

YANGON, Myanmar — More than 60,000 Myanmar students must retake university entrance exams after their answer papers were incinerated in a blaze caused by last month’s earthquake, state media said Tuesday.

The magnitude-7.7 quake killed more than 3,700 people as it razed buildings in Myanmar’s central belt, with devastation focused on the second-most-populous city of Mandalay.

In the ensuing chaos, a fire broke out at Mandalay University, destroying papers from 62,954 high school students from northern regions which were being marked, the military government said at the time.

READ: Scientists explain why Myanmar quake was so deadly

“The exam answer sheets were destroyed in a fire because of the severe earthquake,” state media said on Tuesday. “We are going to hold the matriculation examinations again from June 16 to June 21.”

Myanmar’s matriculation exams are a rite of passage for teenagers, determining the course of their future studies.

Around 130,000 students sat the exams nationwide last year according to state media.

The Mandalay University blaze destroyed more than 375,000 individual papers from students in the regions of Mandalay and Sagaing — both badly hit by the March 28 tremor — as well as Kachin, the military said.

READ: ‘Bayanihan’ spirit alive among Filipinos in quake-hit Myanmar

More than 60,000 people are living in tent encampments in the aftermath, according to the United Nations.

The military seized power in a 2021 coup, ending a brief period of democratic reform and igniting a many-sided civil war.

The earthquake has compounded their problems. UNICEF estimates 2.7 million children are living in areas worst hit by the jolt, which saw the ground shift up to six meters (20 feet) according to NASA analysis.