On the Ground Impacts of Internet Shutdowns in Myanmar and Bangladesh In this section, we share the output of the interviews that we conducted. As noted above, there were sixteen total interviews, ten of which were conducted in Myanmar with Rakhine, Rohingya, and Chin IDPs and six Rohingya refugees in the camps in Bangladesh. The interviews were semistructured and qualitative, and we have included the questions that interviewers used in the appendix. All interviews were conducted over a one month period in August 2020. In analyzing the interviews, we found three themes that were present throughout interviews in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, which were education, news and disinformation, and the COVID-19 pandemic. There were also two themes that arose specific to each place. In Myanmar, those themes were impacts on work and security and conflict, and in Bangladesh, the unique themes were communication with loved ones and access to healthcare. In the following subsections, we address each theme in turn. Education Every single interviewee, in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, discussed at length the disruptive effect that the internet shutdowns have had on their education. Education is a fundamental human right and it offers people the chance to grow and build better lives. However, as one of the world’s poorest countries, Myanmar’s formal education system lags far behind the developed world in terms standards.101 The Myanmar government spends less than 2 percent of its GDP on education, resulting in an education system with very little resources, poor infrastructure and outdated teaching methods based on rote memorization.102 Most universities are limited and scattered throughout cities to prevent students from gathering and creating political unrest as they once did in 1988.103 The most highly educated people in Myanmar are often the children of the military elite, afforded opportunities to attend universities 101 The World Bank, “Inclusive Access and Quality Education project,” https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P163389 102 UNESCO, “Myanmar Education Expenditure,” http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/mm?theme=education-and-literacy 103 Aung Kyaw Soe, “A peep behind the curtain of Myanmar education system,” Burma Digest, 5 June, https://sanooaung.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/a-peep-behind-the-curtain-of-myanmar-educationsystem/ 25