BURMA
MPs Call for Complete Education Reform
The locked gates of Rangoon University’s closed city center campus. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)
Burma’s Lower House of Parliament delayed the drafting of the 2012 University Education Bill on Tuesday with MPs calling for a complete overhaul of existing policy.
Several MPs including Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the draft proposal which mirrors the current strategy enacted by the former military regime where all universities come under government control.
Suu Kyi said that such a system was not suitable for a democratic country and called for independence to be enshrined in Burma’s higher education institutes.
“The new draft that we are going to write will be similar to the education system in 1920, which was used at Rangoon University. We may have a good education system after review and development from the current draft,” said Ba Shein, an ethnic Arakanese lawyer and MP for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party in the Lower House.
Thein Nyunt, a Lower House MP representing Thingangyun Township, said that teachers and education experts must be involved in the drafting process.
There are currently around 170 universities in Burma which come under the control of the Ministries of Education, Health or Science and Technology, depending on the subjects taught. This week’s parliamentary debate was proposed by two MPs—one from the National Democratic Force and another from the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The Burmese schools system suffered greatly under the former military junta as all aspects became under the control of central government after 1974, according to Dr. Kyaw Zaw Naing, who is currently helping reform education in Rangoon.
He explained that to have a good education system there must be autonomy at universities with the right for each to make their own decisions. The government should only establish one national policy without controlling individual universities, added Kyaw Zaw Naing.
Suu Kyi talked about the importance of education while receiving her honorary doctorate at Oxford University in the UK last month. She said that currently the authorities still exercise control and watch over students at universities in Burma and this should be changed.
University is a place where students should have freedom to create their dreams and speak out about what they believe in, said the democracy icon, adding that too many young people did not get the chance to study.
The new education legislation was drafted by the parliamentary Education Promotion Committee after political reforms in Burma were instigated by President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian administration last year. Burmese academics have called for universities to open throughout the country again as many have remained closed for years.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, U Myint, Thein Sein’s chief economic advisor, said, “I want to see a good education system in the country for a very long time.”
U Myint heads the Centre for Economic and Social Development of the Myanmar Development Resource Institute and is also a former economics lecturer. He distributed a proposal in May which called for the restoration of Rangoon University to its former campus in the center of the city.
His open letter said that Rangoon University was one of the most prestigious seats of learning in Asia for many years but “has lost much of former glory and splendor.” The Students Union building was blown up by dictator Ne Win in 1962 and the original lecture halls remained closed for much of the 1990s as the university was considered a hotbed of dissent by the then-ruling junta.
Myint Myint Khin, a former professor at Rangoon Medical School, said that the government needs to reform education from the bottom-up. “The current system is failing because so many schools have been shut down,” she said, adding that students must not just be forced to read but instead encouraged to develop cognitive and creative skills.
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The education is the first priority for every nation. Good education mean good government and if, the country education system is good, than that country has a bright future.
If, the country has bad education system, than that government is killing the future generation.
Free and autonomous universities!
Just like the time prior to 1962 annexation!!
Even better.
Glory and fame of the RU to be restored!!!
I, for one, support this event and upcoming activities.
Thanks for the good of our youngsters and their future.
Finally the parliament is working on something that might indicate hope for the future of the country. A worthy law that should be carefully considered. Please get it published so the public can comment on it.
Thank Buddha that NLD is in the parliament to ensure that a sensible law will be passed, instead of a law that is a rewrite of a system that has made Myanmar’s education system the lowest in the world.
The graduates of the University of Yangon barely qualify as maids and unskilled workers in the all nations, even in their own.
Jolly good that Mother ASSK is working on it.
Basic level English, Math and Science is where it is needed. Why not invite the Christian Schools to reestablish itself and begin the process?
I have been teaching in all universities in Myanmar as well as abroad. I am proud of as a student of Rangoon university and I like most our traditional method of teaching. I am able to survive till now because of legacy of Rangoon Univeristy.
Therefore, I fully support to change our current education system and restart our old education atmosphere by getting back our old brains which had had drained to the places outside Mynamar and then lets start the ball accordingly to current flow.
It is so ashamed to be students in our countries when Burmese were lectureres in these universities once upon a time.
It is very shameful, embarassed and unconfortable to see Burmese youths working as waiters and waitress, maunual workers and others in foreign countries when Burmese scholars were not allowed by the gov: to serve in foreign countries.
Education is the most important to own by an human being and must be able to earn in a place to apply that knowledge especially in own country to support self, family and the country.
Richard, Christian schools as you said offer quality education. But at a cost. In India, the Christians introduced hospitals, then schools, and soon mass conversion into Christianity followed. Only because these schools introduced compulsory Christian prayer and teaching of the Bible in the schools. It is absolutely necessary that Burma shoudl have a modern education, but as far as I know, their education is not that outdated, provided the level of maths skill that you can find among the Burmese exiles. A little tuning here and a little change there might do to solve the problems. Even the textbooks are not very outdated, either, since they include secular curricula. A fresh introduction of international standard economic, financial, science and social science courses would solve the problems. In the past the children of the generals and commanders received education in Singapore, and now countries like Singapore can offer quality curricula and train up teachers for a modern Burma. But Christian schools, I am sorry. Because that will be followed by Muslim schools, and blah blah blah.
We may not be free if we follow someone. We may not be independent if we are under control and or influence of something. In fact, we do not know yet or we may never know what is/are the origin(s) of us and our surroundings.
The education is for us, for every individual, our surrounding and the society to learn, experiment, measure, record, theorize, apply, modify and keep continuing with our constant efforts to make our world more happier, healthier, cleaner and long lasting place.
Education starts on the day one when you come out of your mom. We start leaning the flow designed by the mother nature and try to make room for ourselves within the restriction of the flow patterns. Within that room if we live our life carelessly we get dirty place to live, dirty food to eat, unhealthy life style to enjoy, conflicts to fight each other, and we create lots of differences and misunderstanding using bias, lies, twisting the information, greed, monopoly, control of others, and so on.
We need to start clean up our homes, streets, drains. We need to start learning how to minimize the use of resources including time. We need to learn how to build green and clean living spaces. We need to learn to be honest, to help each other, to be open, not to worship just one person, to have healthy and adventure life, to share, to let others enjoy the life like you do.
We need to help produce next generations with thinking skill, social skill, high efficiency work, proper attitude, sustainable mindsets.
Parents, teachers, neighbors, officers, workers, managers, etc. can learn to become responsible teachers and helpers to others and their society. They can become providers of good services and products.
They can become good listeners and possess positive attitude. They can become aware of our universe, our planet, what is happening around the world, how our peoples must be strong, healthy and full of knowledge.
Math, natural science, logical reasoning, communication skills, art and design, health and healthy environment, communication, creativity, psychology, and there are so many knowledge we can learn in high schools. Students can develop ideas and new things by doing practical projects. We do not at first actually need a high tech building and air-con classrooms for now. Willingness to learn can guide us to learn almost any knowledge in a given environment.
We need to be able to start from beginning. We need to be able to construct from scrap. We need to be able to build steps by steps, face the failures, find the sources of troubles and make corrections and get to the right solutions. This ability to be able to struggle, able to find solution for problems, ability to face the failure without giving up and put efforts to find the right way is one of the most importance of education.
Since right now we have limited number of qualified educators and facilities we maybe okay with just 14 universities in 14 states. In each universities we can have many departments as we can effort. The level of teaching, resources like books, Internet, labs, teachers, environment and lands, etc will decide what faculties we can have in each university. There will also be localized knowledge such as more Thai language exposure for the schools near Thailand border, ethnic language and cultures in ethnic areas, more Marine related knowledge for the schools with large water bodies, and so on. Primary school may put more importance on the physical and mental development of the children.
Every school should invite outside persons to come and deliver their life experiences and skills to the students and teachers. Every school must have their own workshops for all members to practice application of theories into good real use. Every school must have discussion about ideas, what is suitable and what is not for their society for the short and long terms. Every school must offer students to think openly in as many different ways as possible and be open to all that are possible and to produce those that are friendly for our health and our planet’s health.
Education is a long and large and never ending process. Hopefully our government is able to outline the guidelines for the good of our peoples for now and for all coming generations.
We all are chasing own tails!!!! Unless,we can break out of the fossilized “in-box” mentality we will never be able to reach regional levels,let alone international! We must try something innovative,creative and daring.We do not have to search far for examples.Singapore educational model is one,elitist no doubt,but it work.Shanghai is another, if you aim the best campus in Asian region.Before 1962,RU’s fame and prestige was unequalled centre of higher learning centre.Then,what were the causes that made our education so miserable.We all know the causes and inherent reasons but dare not mention them.What Dr. Maung Myint is trying to point out to the people of Myanmar is nothing but the desire and wish of the entire country and majority of the populace.We deeply thanked Saya Myint for his clarion call !!! On the contrary,so long as there are yakkals ( blinkered donkies in Yiddish),who did not know what a seat of higher learning is,but who were made to believe that University campuses are dirty breeding grounds of trouble- makers,our chances to become education-driven society will be slim.A simple solution may be to turn to pre -62 models.Monastic,Missionary,Government schools to form ” Teams of Rivals ” for upgrading of our nation’s education.Already we saw some private schools from KG to Matriculation run by foreigners even as far away as Turkey.The quality of curricula should be upgraded in Government and Monastic institutions with massive funding and provision of higher grade educators/teachers.We can import teachers from other countries on short assignments while a top-notch University for teachers training with refresher courses abroad is a prerequisite.Most important is higher salaries for educators/teachers,must be more attractive than mid -echelon levels in civil and defense services.Before 1962,there existed a healthy competition between Government and Missionary schools.RU is no doubt the apex.Given proper and unbiased policy guidelines and sufficient funding,our educational system can rise again to former glory and prestige.Let us see things for the sake of ” MYANMAR/BURMA FIRST “.Set aside differences for now.!!
Education is basically to produce physically and mentally very healthy, very strong, very smart and productive peoples. The world, the nature, the society we live in is not for the weakling.
In the current society there are lots of competition, lots of conflicts, lots of problems for which you need to produce solution and fight to live for your life, and plenty of hardship to survive against. Besides there are bias, bullying, global dictators, technological dictators, natural and man-made disasters, plus huge amount of unknown things to face with. As well your greed can destroy not only you but also your country and the world finally.
Education is also for the next generations to understand more than us about us and our nature to adapt or change the way we live and communicate to make our planet safe and livable for as long as possible.
Right now your country produce slaves and worshipers to the west, some natural resources such as oil and gas and timber, and some unskilled labors, some seamen, some overseas workers, and plenty of very low efficiency organizations and offices. There are only very few products you produce and you import almost all necessary items: food, construction materials, vehicles, other machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, health care equipment and medicines, etc and management and knowledge.
You can look at ordinary families how they raise their children since the child birth. Education starts with parenting, baby care and development. There is a large room for you to improve.
Primary school education must be for the children to live responsibly, help create clean environment, slowly let them know the life is a struggle, develop them mentally and physically. They need to become physically and mentally very able persons.
In the high schools the students must be given plenty of opportunity to explore various subjects and skills, practical projects, Arts and Science, Math and Technology, Thinking and logical reasoning, Openness and understanding of many differences in the society, and so on. They must become hard working peoples, smart peoples, adventure peoples, healthy peoples.
Yes Myanmar does not have enough educators and facilities and number of Universities should be reduced for now. But the high schools must enlarge their spheres and welcome those who can not enter the Universities for various reasons to learn some skills.
Medical study and Engineering study will be important at this time. What is important for all of you is to be mentally and physically healthy, and to live clean and green life, to work with efficiency and properly according to the standard work guidelines.
Education is everywhere and it is everything. It is not just the schools, but at home, in the streets, in the office, in the farms. So all other spheres industries should also be slowly developed.
In the next 10 or so years your peoples must be bigger, stronger, mentally and physically much more healthier. You should be able to produce good workers and managers for diverse industries. You should be able to produce healthy foods available to all your population in every corner of the country. You should be able to produce all basic materials and machinery for constructing of green, clean and healthy villages, transportation, towns and cities. You should be able to manage your country affairs yourselves. You should be able to reduce dramatically dependence on the foreign technology and foreign platforms. You should be able to reduce slaves and worshipers of the west substantially. You should have your own platforms for communication, media, banking, economy, product flow. You should be more or less self sufficient in many of the necessary things.
The above milestones should be parts of the goals of your education system. Everyone must work hard and live smart.
Well, we import lots of plastics, garbage, games, videos, coke, and many other garbage and unhealthy stuff from abroad. My two sons (11 and 13) have reading glasses already due to sticking their eyes onto video games many hours a day. I still can read with naked eyes.
I sent them to international school. I found that they learn to copy the life style and belief system of the west. They tend to look down on our Myanmar cultures and traditions. Their English is improved I think.
So my three comments are:
1) Why we must import garbage? It is because of the international trade laws? It is because we are going democracy? It is because we are not allowed to stop the inflow of unhealthy products? I guess it is because we are uneducated.
2) Why we are so unhealthy compared to peoples in many other countries in the world? The consequences are enormous. I believe it is also about education.
3) Why everywhere we have very low efficiency? Every work, even applying for the leave (in a government office) to be able to send your dying child to a better hospital takes plenty of time.
We have too many unnecessary steps. Yet we miss so many important things. For example we are now having one million illegal immigrants in the northern Rakhine state probably due to our very bad immigration and border control system plus the hardship on the other side of the border.
Please look into these three problems seriously. Plan our education to solve these problems please.
It is nice to hear that the education system of Burma will be bottom-up reformed. Many graduate student do not know how to write an application letter for a job. There is no doubt that the English skills of the graduate students are sub-standard. On the otherhand, some of the administrators, assistant directors and up could not peak English well. I think we should change the educators who will design the cullucula.
A Short Comment on Educational Atmosphere in Burma
Recently, there are many authors exposed at oversea media trying to enlighten the current worst academic and educational system and atmosphere, to the current government organization based on his/her ideologies and theoretical implements concerned on how to improve and upgrade the current educational policies and systems of our country.
Approximately before year 1988, I asked many senior lecturers and professors at the University of Yangon, when and why everybody is saying the educational standard of our country (both higher and basic levels) are steadily going to downgrading and decreasing quality (worse and worse) of its products in time by time. Most of lecturers and professors answered and explained that it was started at late 1973 years in the Burma Socialist Program Party’s period, because of too much burmanized, reducing workload, tight and unnecessary rule and regulation, ethics of academic professionals and others in general.
After completion of personnel academic investment at the Burmese educational environment and atmosphere, I received an admission of doctoral program at the Japanese University (university for English as secondary language). As we knew, there is no (travelling document) passport issued by Ministry of Home Affairs, for an academic purpose of an applicant who wants to proceed his/her study at the oversea university or college with individual or own purpose.
During the processing of admission and application of scholarship program at the MONBUSHO (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) in Japan, I initially faced with two fundamental problems to be judged with my current academic qualification and requirement of oversea academic level, that are as follow: 1. 10 years program of matriculation of pre-university requirement in our country in contrast with the other countries, as exampled for internationally grade 12 program (12 years matriculation) of pre-university requirement (need more English proficiency level for admission of university/college employed English as primary language); and 2. poor paper-quality and hard readable graduation and grading certificates issued by our university. I have completed the university program (oversea academic investment) for 5 years under the effective and functional Japanese academic atmosphere.
During visiting to my country within 15 years (from just started on the Ph.D. courses in the University of Yangon, to now a day), I have been suggesting and encouraging unofficially to the retired and current professors, registers, pro-rectors, rectors, the university authorities and others for the upgrading and improving purposes of the system on the recent academic atmosphere. But they listened to my argument and suggestion on the current unsatisfied and the worst educational systems and policies. Resultantly, I got these responses from them in general. first responses are persons who are deaf (no response), second responses said we did not want to use the foreign trained and experience professionals and we were creating Ph.D. programs within ourselves for the near future, and third group said we essentially required the foreign trained and experience personals for the road of upgrading and improving process based on our current worst educational atmosphere.
Conclusively, a short ultimate suggestion to the current educational policies makers (PMs) in our country is that please must consider to imply the educational rules and regulations, policies, systems and others, to be positively reached a suitable academic level internationally and a right track for the future generations, without a limited points of views, huge preconceived and conservative ideas, self-esteemed proudly purposes, and narrow mind.
Thanks for your times and any question, please.
With Mitta, for getting a better educational life style for our peoples in the near future, heading to a democrative country.
Myo Myint, Ph.D., P.Geol.
Consultant Geologist
ph: 1-403-440-1838