Myanmar Education

Much has been said and written about how poorly Myanmar education is doing.
There are, indeed, problems in all levels of education. At the preschool level, an atmosphere of benign neglect exists. There is only a rudimentary and limited
Dictatorship, disorder and decline in Myanmar teacher-training program for preschool teachers and care givers. The lack of control, standards and training of teachers is evident from the ad hoc system of schools in which three to four-year-olds are being taught the school curriculum of higher grades by rote learning. Most preschools are overcrowded and badly managed.
Much will have to be done to ensure quality and acceptable standard

Since 69 per cent (UIS 2007) of the population lives in rural areas and approximately 64.1 per cent are employed in the agricultural sector, provision of education to these rural communities should be geared towards their needs.
The curriculum and programs used in rural schools should be flexible not rigid.
The rigid, monolithic national curriculum, school terms and timetables that exist today will have to be reconsidered. For rural areas, a more flexible curriculum based on local needs should be devised and, where seasonal cropping occurs, school terms should be arranged so that rural family units can make full use of the manpower available to them without disrupting the schooling of their children. In such a way, the massive drop-out rate before completion of the primary cycle of education can be staunched in these disadvantaged areas. If rural schools are programmed as urban schools are and the plight of agrarian families is ignored, the pernicious effect of school drop-out rates on the already weakened education system will be increased further.

Currently, agriculture is losing out as the nation’s focus is directed towards exploring for natural gas, gemstones and minerals. This is unfortunate, as these resources are finite. On the other hand, agricultural productivity—like human resources—is a renewable factor. Much more should be done for the sons and daughters of rural folk engaged in agriculture. The farmers themselves should also be given an opportunity to gain literacy skills and therefore be able to participate more effectively in agricultural extension endeavours.

Much remains to be done to restore Myanmar education to its former high standards. In order to achieve this, a holistic approach to education must be taken. The focus should be not only on formal education, but on informal education. Informal education via the mass media and popular literature is often forgotten when discussing education issues. It is highly effective in educating the general populace about social problems such as drug addiction, sexually transmitted diseases and the existence and spread of HIV/AIDS. In such a holistic
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Myanmar education: challenges, prospects and options approach, the needs and inputs of the major education stakeholders must be considered within the contexts of home and community and school and community. Religion and the policy environment will also influence the outcome of the education process.
Finally, Myanmar education will improve only when the education and training of its young improves. Their education should be carefully planned and mapped out. This chapter has identified the various stages in the education of a child and the development of its behaviour at which interventions could be made to establish habits of thoughtfulness, emotional discipline, self-management and conflict resolution. Only with such interventions will an evolutionary process begin in the mind-set of the population, making it possible for change to occur.
Underpinning all this is a need for generational change, which will transform the psyche of the whole nation and enable its society to move away from a dominator type towards a more liberal and freer one