Research_Paper_Myanmar

AbstractEver since the military junta left Myanmar’s education system in shambles, the National League ofDemocracy, under Aung San Suu Kyi, has made a committed effort to return the nation to its formerglory. The National Education Strategic Plan (NESP), the first phase of which is set to end in 2021, is theMinistry of Education’s first concrete attempt at reform, targeting - among other things - theestablishment of a quality assurance framework, a more progressive curriculum, and improved fundingfor teachers and staff. These changes are largely supported by the influx of foreign aid through non-governmental organisations, but the abundance of different organisations also leaves the processfragmented and chaotic. Through interviews conducted with numerous NGOs and UN organising bodiesoperating in Yangon, this paper seeks to identify the largest challenges facing foreign aid in Myanmar soas create solutions for the future and improve the efficiency of educational reform in the country.IntroductionHistoryIn 1962, the army of Myanmar - then known as Burma - staged an armed coup against in-powergovernment Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL), overthrowing the democratic socialistregime and marking the beginning of an era of totalitarian rule that would last for over half a century.1Under the military junta, Burma launched a campaign against foreign influence, cutting off desperately-needed humanitarian aid, nationalising education and enterprise, and eventually promoting a socialistnational program following the constitution in 1974. The decrease in foreign investment significantlyweakened Burma’s educational standards, and the nation moved away from industry to once againprioritize agriculture. The agrarian economy, and the weak infrastructure that came along with it, meantthat the government couldn’t generate capital easily, defaulting on its few foreign loans and leading to theUN’s categorization of Burma as the Least Developed Country in 1987.2 The economy rapidlydeteriorated and the black-market soon became the primary exchange of goods; by 1988, widespreadcorruption and food shortages had pushed citizens to revolt, all of which were violently suppressed.3 In1989, socialist Burma was once again taken over by the military regime, resulting in further isolation andpunishment by United States sanctions.4In a move that shocked the world, Burma’s military junta officially dissolved in 2011, 22 years after itreclaimed power, making way for a civilian government with Prime Minister Thein Sein as president. TheThein Sein administration re-engaged international assistance, and passed numerous humanitarian andeconomic reform legislation that the old government had neglected.5 As the country opened its borders,the European Union, United States, Japan, and Australia dropped economic sanctions, and net inflow offoreign investment dramatically increased from just $300 million before the military ceded power to over1 Economist article2 \"UN DESA | DPAD | CDP | Least Developed Country Factsheet | Myanmar\". www.un.org. Retrieved 2018-6-25.3 History of Myanmar4 Ibid.5 Ibid.

$2 billion two years later.6 In early 2012, the administration agreed to hold fair voting for the vacanciesremaining from general elections; the National League for Democracy (NLD), a party that had long beensuppressed by the military junta, dominated, winning 44 out of 46 open seats but still only holding tenpercent of the parliament body. It wasn’t until 3 years later, in November 2015, that the NLD won alandslide victory and secured a majority in both upper and lower levels of parliament.7 Leader Aung SanSuu Kyi continued the open-door policies that her predecessor had begun, but although Myanmar’sforeign investment, in just 3 years, had once again quadrupled to over $8 billion, it still lagged far behindmany of its neighbors.8Since the replacement of the military agenda, Myanmar has jumped up 20 places on World Bank’sLogistic Performance Index (LPI) evaluating the trading capabilities of nations, but still ranks only 113 inthe comparison of 160 countries.9 In the Human Development Index, Myanmar sits behind 144 othercountries in a survey spanning only 188,10 proving that the nation still has far to go if it is to reach theregional comparative excellence that it once boasted. The upsurge of foreign investment and internationalnon-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have set roots in Myanmar lead the country into the futureby targeting, among others, disaster relief, civil society improvement, economic stability, and politicalawareness. But as Lall et al. (2008) concluded, it is “the deterioration of Myanmar’s education system[that] underlies the low economic growth of the country”. Any possible changes made to civil society orother aspects will change the status quo comparably little, as it is education that will truly lead the chargeto growth in coming years.11EducationEducation in Myanmar before the reign of the military flourished - due not only to the Burmese schoolsbut primarily the prominence of monastic education for the poorer sections of society - the country hadthe highest literacy rate across the British Empire at its time of independence in 1948, and one of thehighest in South-East Asia just before 1962 (Lorch 2007).12 Burma was, as Singapore and Switzerland aretoday, regarded as an example of effective education for the rest of the world. The military’s isolationistmentality after taking power saw the country abolish English as a national language, no longer to betaught or read; while initially not a problem, higher education in technical and vocational training (TVET)schools had formerly been taught in English, and no updated Burmese textbooks were available.13 Foreignteachers, who tended to be the most experienced and dedicated, were forced out, and education spendingwas cut and redirected to benefit agriculture and the military. Private institutions that attracted the mostelite students from across the country were abolished as education became completely nationalised14 and6 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD?name_desc=true7 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-348058068 http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/25/myanmar-investment-idUSL3N0WR25Q201503259 https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global/201610 Human Development Report11 Interplay of State, Business...12 Lorch, Jasmin 2007, ‘Myanmar’s civil society—a patch for the national education system? Theemergence of civil society in areas of state weakness’, SÜDOSTASIEN aktuell, issue 3/2007, pp.54–88.13 Lall14 Overview

used “as a tool of indoctrination…[teaching students] never to question authority”.15 Educationalstandards continued to drop as the government, over time, began to forget entirely about the sector. In the1990s, spending on education was limited to just 28 cents per child, continuing all the way until 2010,when percent of GDP dedicated to education remained at only 0.8% since 3 years prior.16 This was lessthan a third of the regional average, and, ranking at 172 amongst surveyed countries, represented one ofthe lowest percentages in the world.17The effect that the lack of funding has had can be seen most evidently in statistics regarding the country’spopulation-education levels. UNESCO figures state that the average adult in Myanmar has had only 2.8years of schooling, even though 5 years of primary education are mandated by the government.18 Only 36%of those eligible actually enroll in a secondary education, and over half of those drop out by the secondyear.19 1 kid in every 10 will complete high school, and, on top of that, just 30% of those will pass therequired entrance exam and be granted admission into college; that is, amongst a group of 100 Burmesestudents, a measly 3 of them are predicted to make it all the way from primary school to college.20 Theproblems with the schooling system are abundant, ranging from an enormous education wealth divide to acounterproductive examination system to an ineffective higher instruction system that all contribute to thelack of widespread education throughout the country.ProblemsDue to a lack of investment, schools often charge families with a bundle of unofficial fees, includingcleaning fees, teachers pensions, and meal plans, that, when combined, present a costly commitment tomany poorer households who simply can’t afford to send their children to school anymore.21 Beyond this,widespread poverty forces children from all around Myanmar to give up their education and take upillegal, often dangerous, jobs so as to support their families. More than 20%, 1 in every 5 children, aged10 to 17 are working instead of going to school,22 with the total amount of child laborers at a staggering13 million.23 This all contributes to an enormous educational wealth divide -- where according to Haydenet. al (2014), 85.5% of the richest quintile sent their kids to secondary education while only 28.2% of thepoorest quintile did so.24 As one of the essential components to upward social mobility, the lack of equalschooling between the upper and lower classes continues to enlarge the divide between the two,preventing Myanmar from moving forward as a society.-- Motivation, holidays, etc.Myanmar’s examination system, a remnant from the colonial period that still dominates the curriculumtoday, drastically decreases educational participation and promotes a form of learning proven ineffective15 Economist16 Ibid.17 Overview18 Overview19 Economist20 Recoveries of the Education System21 Overview22https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/illegal-child-labour-underage-myanmar-laws-986427223Labor Force survey24 Recoveries of the Education System

in today’s world, posing a larger problem for the country’s economy as it seeks to improve infrastructureso as to accommodate the rapid inflow of foreign investment. Although a large portion of the the studentdropout rate can be attributed to access and affordability, an even larger factor is due to the selectivenessof the exams which students are forced to take numerous times a year, to qualify for the next level of theireducation.25 The pressure placed on each student, combined with the difficulty of the tests and the lack ofeducational support for the struggling, ensure that the large majority of students have failed to achieve anoverall passing grade on at least one of the succession of exams leading up to grade 11, denying them thechance to proceed.And even when students earn their promotion into higher education, the quality of these schools islackluster, and doesn’t adequately prepare them for the workplace. Students have the option of eitherentering Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) schools or universities, but the boundaries are notclearly defined, and both have fragmented greatly over the years. Between the two, no national qualityassurance frameworks have been developed to date, and expectations facing staff and students are heavilymuddled.26 The differences between bachelor, masters, or tertiary degrees are vague, making unqualifiedteachers giving out inflated degrees common all throughout the country. TVET schools in particular stillsuffer today from the lack of support given by the military junta in past years, and are known for theiroutdated curriculum and program design, unqualified teaching staff and professional support systems, andlack of connection to the real marketplace.27 According to Milio et. al. (2014), the TVET system iscompletely supply-driven for both public and private providers, as “the consultation system withentrepreneurs, business associations, and chambers of commerce that would allow the system to be moredemand-driven is not yet in place”.28 There is still a large discrepancy between the supposedly ‘job-oriented’ education that the TVET schools offer and the needs of the actual marketplace; consequently,degrees from these schools are severely undervalued, and workers with trade qualifications and workerswithout are paid roughly the same wages.29ReformSince Aung San Suu Kyi came to power, education has been a top priority for the national government.On September of 2014, parliament passed the National Education Law, formalising this commitment toimproving quality and reach of education across the country.30 Expanding on this, the Ministry ofEducation (MoE) announced the National Education Strategic Plan (NESP), set to be implementedbetween 2016-2027, to “develop vocational training and inject a dose of critical thinking into theclassroom”.31 By updating basic education and higher education curricula to fit a more progressivemindset, attempting to establish a quality assurance framework, massively improving funding for teachersand schools, and opening the country up to an inflow of international aid, the current government is25 Ibid.26 TVET Schools27 Recoveries of the Education System28 TVET 229 Ibid.30http://www.myanmar-law-library.org/law-library/laws-and-regulations/laws/myanmar-laws-1988-until-now/union-solidarity-and-development-party-laws-2012-2016/myanmar-laws-2014/pyidaungsu-hluttaw-law-no-41-2014-national-education-law-burmese-and-english.html31 Economist Article

making great strides towards a future for the country where education is no longer something to beashamed of.32But this process isn’t without its doubts. There have been reports that reform has been disjointed andchaotic, as over nine uncoordinated foreign organisations have been assigned to fix various different partsof the problem. According to Rosalie Metro of the University of Missouri-Columbia, “the curriculumseems like a bridge to nowhere,” devised without the input of teachers, students, and others with a directstake in the effects of reform.33 It seems that although the new government seems to be on the right trackto improving quality education throughout the country, there are still inefficiencies in the system thatlimit the effectiveness of foreign aid through NGOs and the reform itself.This paper seeks to identify the greatest challenges facing non-governmental organisations, both local andinternational, so as to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work in the future, as well as toprovide a preliminary evaluation of the educational reform plan, based on the testimonies of students,teachers, and education managers. It’s based on interviews and observations conducted with students,teachers, and 15 non-governmental organisations over three trips to Yangon, Myanmar, between 2017 and2018. For the purpose of this paper, many organisations wished to remain anonymous so as not tojeopardise their relationship with the Burmese government.FindingsEstablishmentPieces of the military junta’s distrust of foreign organisations remain today, in the form of an immenselydifficult NGO establishment process that can be both costly and time consuming. Both local andinternational NGOs alike have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a negotiated contractwith the Burmese government that is known to take many organisations up to 2 years to complete.Organisations are instructed to negotiate their terms with the corresponding bureaucratic ministries, but,due to the centralisation and inexperience of the recently-appointed government, NGOs often findthemselves ‘passed on’ from ministry to ministry as each seeks to avoid responsibility, resulting indrastically inflated waiting periods. Additionally, many organisations are subjected to a K500,000,recently decreased to K250,000, company registration fee issued by the Directorate of Investment andCompany Administration (DICA). Especially for new organisations with no established forms offundraising, these fees can present a formidable challenge while waiting for the terms of their licenses tobe accepted. A combination of costly registration fees and extensive waiting times for contract approvalcan heavily discourage the establishment of new international and local NGOs as well as the entrance ofpreviously established organisations -- such as the Peace Corps -- in the country.PrioritisationThe prioritisation, or lack thereof, of issues in the education sector by foreign investment, the Burmesegovernment, and local citizens heavily restricts the effectiveness and ability of education NGOs, who relyon the trust, funding, and volunteers that correspond with this increased emphasis. Foreign investment is32https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/analysis/pedagogical-priorities-authorities-are-working-modernise-teaching-methods-and-improve-access-quality33 The Economist

crucial to the operation and maintenance of all NGOs in Myanmar, as there exists a ubiquitous notionamongst locals that foreigners and foreign governments always have money to spare, and thus willcontinue funding projects within the country with or without their aid. The few locals who do assist areoften influenced by Myanmar’s historic rejection of the importance of education, and choose to volunteerfor relief programs or peace programs instead. Likewise, foreign investment into the country neverprioritises education, as perception of Myanmar’s issues is dominated by recent catastrophes with heavymedia coverage, namely the Rakhine state genocides and the devastation of Cyclone Nargis. Securingsufficient funding is slowly becoming more and more difficult for NGOs operating in education sectors,and will soon become the chief concern for many organisations if no change is made.Both the trust given and the resources allocated to health and relief NGOs by the Burmese government issignificantly greater than those given to education organisations and clearly demonstrates the country’sofficial priorities. All 11 educational organisations interviewed said that the government doesn’t allocatesufficient resources to meet the needs of the education sector, while only one of four health or peaceorganisations felt the same way. The government is known to take up to one year, often more, to evenrespond to project proposals that organisations have submitted, while the volatile conditions and needs ofpotential beneficiaries are likely to change during this intermittent time period. Most agree that this is duesimply to the lack of resources that the government has dedicated, not to the lack of effort. Organisationshave gotten into the habit of defending their government for its many mistakes, stretching their ownalready-thin resources to cover for their government and accepting burdening responsibilities. Forexample, many educational NGOs now believe that it is their duty to continue pushing their ideas andmonitoring the government’s operations even after their proposals have been approved, as the newadministration is known for not fully committing to their projects, and thus not carrying them throughuntil the end. This habit is disastrous for the organisations because they simply don’t have the means tocontinue this for years to come, and for the government because there is nothing that requires them tochange.Most educational NGOs still feel as if there is a sense of distrust on the administration’s end, as they stillhaven’t been given the necessary flexibility to freely conduct operations where the country needs it most.In areas of conflict such as Shan State and Rakhine State, the government has taken control of local aid,and, while most health and relief projects have been allowed to continue their work in these areas,educational NGOs have been locked out. The government views foreign schooling programs in the sameway that it views the media, questioning the motives of their work and limiting their influence in‘controversial’ areas; members of the Peace Corps, whose operations in Myanmar largely center aroundeducation and child development, even report being followed by the country’s ‘secret police’, and say thatthey are often treated like foreign spies. The Burmese government,For years, the government has ignored the by-product of their rigid examination system and lowmatriculation rate: an abundance of out-of-school students unable to continue their education. Thecountry’s non-formal education (NFE) program, designed to help students work and re-integratethemselves into the education system at a lower level, is outdated and very rarely utilized, and moststudents opt instead to work and earn a basic salary for their family. Organisations working with theseout-of-school students have described this as one of their greatest challenges; the government’s poormanagement of the NFE programs and the high poverty rate in the country -- also a statistic long-

neglected by the government -- has created a culture where students no longer desire to complete theireducation. Either through family pressure or lack of motivation, most out-of-school students end upworking in local tea shops or doing hard labor, exacerbating the country’s child labor problem.Education LevelThe country’s existing low education levels severely hinder the progress of scholarship programs andrural development organisations, both of whom find themselves struggling to collaborate with targetaudiences as a result of insufficient schooling. For the dozens of organisations working with overseasinstitutions and universities to provide overseas scholarship opportunities for Burmese students, their loweducation level, which often corresponds with the poorer students who need scholarships the most, meansthat even if their tuition is paid, these students still won’t be able to sustain the heavy workload andchallenging curricula of overseas universities. Scholarship organisations are forced to divert up to half oftheir funding simply to prepare the students, taking already-diminishing funding away from other studentswho desperately need it.In rural areas of Myanmar, villagers are oblivious about their civil liberties and rights - including theirright to an education - due to the government curriculum’s lack of emphasis on these issues. Coupled withthe fact that many of them never received an education to begin with, it’s not surprising that developmentagencies find it difficult to convince their targets of the importance of education. Citizens in rural areasprioritize health and access far more than they do education, despite the fact that organisations havealready been building clinics and roads all throughout the country’s poorer states for more than a decadenow. The lack of general agreement between agencies and the community on the necessity of educationmeans that the government is hesitant to approve any plans of educational development in rural areas forfear of public backlash. Without the public actively pushing for it, these organisations will continue tostruggle when it comes to bringing education to the Burmese countryside, and this will only happen witha curriculum more dedicated to civil liberty and human rights.Coordination and LobbyingNGOs describe coordinating efforts amongst their fellow organisations to be ‘feeble, if not nonexistent’.The government has made no effort to improve/initiate these efforts in the country, and has evenexacerbated the problem by delegating the NESP to several different international organisations, none ofwhich have established connections with each other. NGOs often find themselves in conflict with otherssimply because a lack of coordination led to competing projects, where neither has sufficient resources tocomplete the task. For example, scholarship programs found that a majority of their students had appliedto numerous programs at once without their knowledge, and therefore the more qualified students werereceiving more than enough funding from various sources whilst needier kids found themselves rejectedtime after time again. The students are not at fault but rather the organisations themselves, who failed tosynchronize their funding lists and make sure every student receives only what they need.One simple reason for this lack of coordination is the limited resources. Smaller organisations simplydon’t have the time or money to coordinate with others, leaving larger international NGOs theresponsibility to contact and organise with hundreds of smaller local NGOs. The problem with this is thatinternational organisations simply don’t have a sufficient knowledge of the local system and its customs,

and have tried unsuccessfully for years to coordinate between these local programs with differingapproaches and objectives. Additionally, the decreased investment into the education non-profit sector hascreated a ‘starved animal’ mentality at many smaller organisations, who become driven by the moneynecessary to maintain operations rather than their true goals: to improve the education system. Once again,this is simply a product of the unforgiving environment that these programs have found themselvestrapped in, and are in no way reflective of their true intentions. Regardless, this mentality causes NGOs toisolate themselves, as they believe it is in their best interest to ignore the others and simply focus onsustaining their own organisation. Even if larger organisations were able to finally figure out the way totruly connect and reach the innumerable small local organisations working in Myanmar, this ‘every manfor themselves’ outlook must first be removed to truly improve coordination amongst NGOs.Improving this coordination must be a priority for the upcoming years, as the current lack of it is aprimary reason why lobbying to the government is practically nonexistent in Myanmar’s current politicalsystem. There are simply no easy channels for these organisations to communicate directly with thegovernment -- part of the reason why this paper was written -- and NGOs can’t coordinate their individualobjectives enough to make an appeal of any substance. Whether intentional or not, the government isunable to truly understand the needs of its educational-aid programs, a theme prominent for years nowthat has discouraged most organisations from making appeals to the political parties in power, and insteadaccepted the system for what it is: flawed.Educational ReformThe NESP has received heavy criticism from NGOs for the insufficient resources dedicated to re-trainingteachers and administrators working in the government schools. For individuals and programs workingclosely with the implementation of new curricula, their biggest concern is the resistance provided by olderfaculty members who’ve long been familiar with the older, single-minded teaching style. Their refusal toadapt to the progressive ideals is a large roadblock for the success of the new curriculum, as Myanmar’slargely-Buddhist culture heavily emphasises respecting the elderly and bowing before authority. Whileyounger teachers are quicker to get on board with the Western style of open-ended teaching, theirinability to challenge the older staff members means that in many government schools around the country,the old system is still very much prominent.Next StepsThe interviews with NGOs throughout Myanmar have revealed a great number of areas for improvementthat the government needs to begin addressing, ranging in importance from the highest significance -prioritisation - to issues that remain prominent but not as pressing - the establishment process. Thegovernment needs to re-evaluate its priorities, placing more of an emphasis on the education sectorthrough diverting more resources, as well as trust, to benefit the organisations working within the sector.A concrete source of these resources could be a coordination group dedicated to help the collaborationbetween international and local NGOs, as well as a platform to listen to the urgent needs of thesecoordinated groups. Trust is also an important feature of this, as the educational NGOs have struggled foryears encumbered by the rules and restrictions of a skeptical government, limiting the effectiveness oftheir aid. Educational organisations must be given the freedom and operate painlessly throughout thecountry, without the constant reports and overpowering presence of the current administration. In the

process of doing so, the media will gain greater access to the education system in Myanmar, raisingawareness for its desperate needs internationally and garnering more much-needed foreign investment forsmaller organisations operating locally. As these organisations slowly recover, the fragmented nature ofthe current system must be removed, and coordination amongst them must be easy and efficient.A successful reformatting of the curriculum is critical, with more resources dedicated to re-trainingteachers and instituting a quality assurance framework (non-examination based) to evaluate the success ofgovernment schools and universities in teaching more progressive ideology. More support must be givento younger teachers familiar with the changes, and more emphasis should be placed on shifting theoutlooks of the nation’s older educators. This reformed curriculum should also be more transparent aboutthe civil liberties and natural rights of the Burmese citizens, and should garner a larger reach evenamongst the rural areas of the country so that the importance of education is not lost to local citizens.Concluding RemarksBefore continuing, the author would like to acknowledge the significant progress the NLD has made inrecent years regarding many of the issues addressed throughout the paper, as well as to reiterate that thepurpose of this writing is not to criticise the current system or the government behind it, but ratheridentify the weaknesses in the system so as to suggest the next steps necessary. Nearly every organisationinterviewed made note that the past two years have filled them with hope, as notable strides have indeedbeen made to improve the education system and the aid going into it.That being said, one paper is certainly not enough when trying to combine the vast opinions of dozens ofindependent organisations, but hopefully the paper will serve to bring a greater awareness to the issuesthey face and create opportunities for more reports and investigations in the future.References\"Foreign Direct Investment, Net Inflows (BoP).\" World Bank. Accessed July 25, 2018.https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD?name_desc=true.Haydena, Martin, and Richard Martin. \"Recovery of the Education System in Myanmar.\" Journal ofInternational and Comparative Education 2, no. 2 (2013). Accessed July 25, 2018.doi:10.14425/00.50.28.Hays, Jeffrey. \"Education in Myanmar.\" Facts and Details. Accessed July 25, 2018.http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5f/entry-3117.html.\"International LPI: Global Rankings.\" World Bank. Accessed July 25, 2018.https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global/2016.Lorch, Jasmin. \"Myanmar’s Civil Society – a Patch for the National Education System? The Emergenceof Civil Society in Areas of State Weakness.\" Südostasien Aktuell : Journal of Current Southeast AsianAffairs,, 54-88. Accessed July 25, 2018.

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