BURMA: Education for sale 22.06.

10 12:33

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An Article by Ms Noveline published by the Asian
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BURMA: Education for sale

Noveline

Education is one of the most important elements both

as an indicator as well as a tool of a country’s
development .Without a good education system that
guarantees the future of the new generation the
country cannot develop.

After a military coup in 1962 the education system in

Burma was changed from a nationalist education
system to a socialist education system.

The education system is divided into three parts,

primary education, secondary education and higher
education. The primary education starts when the child
is 5 years-of-age up to 10 and the secondary education
is from 10 to 16. The government only spends 1.1
percent of country’s income for education.

Until the primary and secondary schooling, the system

is a "no-failure education system". This is where no
student fails and all of them progress to next standard.

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In other words, every student has to take exams but

irrespective of the performance, no one fails and all get
promoted to next class. However, the system changes
at the upper secondary level where an examination is
introduced at the 10th standard level. The exam is
conducted to select candidates for the college or
university level education. Only the students who pass
the 10th Standard examination are eligible to enter the
universities and colleges, according to their
performance in the exam, i.e. their scores and rank.

The education system is essentially centered around a

textbook based teaching system where the focus is on
memorizing content from text books. The system,
however, fails badly in terms of teaching the students
how to think. Teachers are not well-trained and they
don’t know how to explain their respective subjects
such as mathematics, English and science. The quality
of education is terrible in the government run schooling
system because of the flawed focus and parents,
therefore, prefer to send their children for private
tuition which, generally, is perceived to be far better in
imparting education.

The dropout rates are very high in the Burmese

schooling system and most of the dropouts belong to
poor and lower middle classes. Poverty and the
resulting incapacity to afford education is a primary but
not the only reason behind this. Many of the poor
students drop out also because of the fact that they
cannot understand what is being taught as there is a
very wide gap between their life conditions and the
course material.

Corruption is a rampant problem plaguing the

education system of Burma and the reasons are located
in the systemic failure and not only in the individual
greed. Teachers are compelled to give private tuition
as their salaries are too low to support their families.
For maintaining just a basic minimum standard of life
they have no other option but to engage in the
practice. The fall outs, unfortunately, are severe for the
poor students who cannot afford it. The kids who
attend the classes and bribe the teachers have far
many more privileges than those who do not or cannot.
For example, irrespective of their merit they score
better in exams almost always. It goes without saying
that it is only the rich kids who can pay bribes and
these are the children related to the government
officials.

Discrimination is widespread even in the classroom. The

children belonging to rich and influential get
preferential treatment as a result of all the presents

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BURMA: Education for sale 22.06.10 12:33

they bring to the teachers coupled with the potential

favors they can get from their parents for the teachers.
As a result the poor students are left to fend for
themselves.

As a another example of corruption, in Yangon, the

capital of Myanmar, just before the 10th standard
examination night which can decide which university
the student have to enter, rich students and
governments officials related students gets exam
questions by paying about 500,0000 kyats (US$ 5000)
to the teachers. Often they share these questions with
their friends so that they can have high scores in the
exam. So the exam scores depend only on money and
not on the intelligence of the child.

In addition, they also bribe the exam's correction

teachers with about 100, 0000 kyats ($ 1000) to get
higher marks in examinations and entry to popular
courses at the university. It is unfair for the ordinary
students who cannot afford this from all parts of
country.

Also, students can pay the teachers to get exam

questions, especially in distant universities. For medical
and other professional colleges, in terms of quality, the
universities lack research, laboratory and the practice
necessary for imparting quality education. So according
to the education system, even though students have
graduated, it is still difficult to find a job because of the
low quality of education.

However, in private schools owned by Burmese civilians

such as the International Language and Business
Center (ILBC) and Yangon International Educare Center
(YIEC), children can get good education from native
English speaking teachers or other well-trained
teachers. But these schools are the ones where only
diplomats, businessman and high ranking official's
children can go as they are both unaffordable and
inaccessible for the poor.

But the wealthy people who completed private school

class and the people who are related to government
employee can easily get jobs or go abroad for higher
studies. They return to Burma only after completing
their studies as officers or businessman thus
contributing in making their families richer.

But then, it’s not their merit which makes them achieve
success and richness but the eschewed and biased
education system which favors the rich making them
richer and as a consequence making the poor, poorer.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is

a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring
and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong
Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Posted on 2010-06-21
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