Education decentralisation needed

 

The highest pass rate (44.86 per cent) was in southwestern Ayeyawaddy Region, while remote corners of the country had the highest failure rates, which will means few students from remote ares will be able to attend university. In Myanmar, basic education students, who pass the matriculation exam, will be basically admitted to the universities.

Students and their parents were anxiously awaiting the results, as higher education is seen as a tool to move up the social ladder as the country welcomes more foreign investment. 

On Saturday, the exam results for remote townships in Kachin, Kayin, Chin, Rakhine and Shan states as well as those from Taninthayi, Magway, Sagaing and Yangon regions were broadcast on Myanmar Radio.

The exam took place in March at 1,287 centres across the country, including three located inside hospitals to serve patients aspiring for university enrollment.

Official statistics show that there are 41,000 state-run basic education schools in the country where more than 8.1 million students are pursuing education under the guidance of more than 270,000 teachers. In the higher education sector, the country has 161 universities and colleges. Yangon is home to 33 universities, while Kayah state has the fewest: three

In a country where 70 per cent of population lives in rural areas, there is growing demand to improve the quality of education in the rural areas. 

 

Government’s pledge 

 

President Thein Sein pledged in his inauguration speech in 2012 to improve education and seek foreign expertise to lift standards to international levels. The Myanmar government has made reform of the entire higher education system a national priority. One of the main drivers is the recognition of the important role of human capital to the economic development goals of the country. 

The government increased the country’s education budget to Ks 310 billion in 2013. Yet, though the amount accounted for 7.5 per cent of the national budget compared to 5.2 per cent the year before, it was just 1.3 per cent of GDP. 

According to Myanmar Children’s Rights Development Network, social difficulties also mean that millions of children in Myanmar cannot access education and other welfare benefits. 

At a conference last weekend, local and foreign experts discussed initiatives for education reforms. The conference’s organiser – the National Network for Education Reform (NNER), a non-governmental reform committee consisting of university professors, lecturers, teachers and students – called for decentralisation in the sector.

 “The military regime’s education policies still linger in our thoughts,” said Dr. Thein Lwin, an education researcher of NNER. “To grant Myanmar citizens an adequate and decentralised education system is our goal,” he added. 

Carol Haddaway from the US Embassy made a presentation on decentralisation. “Freedom in education and thinking is crucial for development of a nation. Myanmar still has weakness in this regard. Of course, every reform faces difficulties. But the Myanmar government should relax centralisation as soon as possible. As other countries have done this, I think, Myanmar could implement it successfully by taking the good examples of other nations,” she said.

About 300 participants attended the presentations, which included a report on the status of coordination on education reform between the government and Unesco by Satoko Yano from Unesco’s Bangkok office. Panellist Philip Hallinger from Hong Kong spoke about primary and high school education.

 

 

More to be done

 

In his article on “Education and Development in the Post-2015 Landscapes: Will Education Reform be Successful?”, Thien Lwin said the quality of teaching was very low in public schools and little consideration was given to teachers’ professional development. The assessment system is based on rote learning and university selection is based on exam marks. “If the education system continues this way, ordinary citizens – including indigenous minorities – will continue to suffer social injustice and restricted human development. If this happens, national reconciliation will not be realised.”

The US-based Institute of International Education also noted in a research paper that decentralisation is necessary in the higher education. 

Currently, 13 different ministries oversee higher education, with the Ministry of Education overseeing the majority of universities (64 out of 161 universities). The ministry has 10 different departments for overseeing the country’s education system, but for higher education it has two specific units, one for northern Myanmar – centred in Mandalay and one for southern Myanmar – operating out of Yangon.