5 Education
149. Burma's education system has suffered from decades
of underinvestment. Currently only 54% of children who enrol complete
primary schooling (31% from the poorest households[176])
and few Burmese have higher level education.[177]
150. Save the Children highlighted the importance
of education in Burma:
Myanmar has a young population. This is an opportunity
to invest in the next generation.[178]
Foreign investors in Burma could be deterred by a
work force with poor language and numerical skills, very little
higher education and few qualified professionals. We heard in
relation to health, just building up local services in townships
was proving difficult as there was no one for example with financial
management skills to receive funds and allocate them for services.[179]
151. The Burmese Government has ambitious plans to
reform education. Inevitably, it is theoretical at present, but
it does recognise the need for major reforms. On our visit we
discussed the curriculum which we were told was heavily based
on rote learning and required reform. The need for DFID's help
training teachers and in-service training was stressed. The British
Council had been asked to assist with training teachers, and we
recommend that it do so.
152. DFID contributes the majority of its funding
to education through The Multi Donor Education Fund (MDEF), managed
by UNICEF, which works to improve policy, access, equity, quality
and management in schooling. DFID is on the MDEF Steering Committee
and has committed £6 million up to 2014. DFID also has smaller
projects on education policy with a budget of £5.7 million
for 2011-12 to 2014-15 and monastic schooling with a budget of
£3.9 million for 2011-12 to 2014-15. However this is together
a relatively small amount making up 5.4% of its forecast spending
for 2011-15 in comparison to its health programme spend of £63.4
million and DFID's education programme in Pakistan which has a
budget of £203 million in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, £80 million
in Punjab and £39 million in Sindh. The Minister told us:
the starting point with education is we are doing
it on a small scale, so ultimately the resource decisions we are
going to have to make might be characterised as double or quits.
We either ramp it up to a bigger scale or just appreciate that
we are not really going to have an enormous impact.[180]
153. Burma has a unique problem in that the younger
generation is less well educated than their parents. There is
an urgent need for education not only for children but also adult
education and training if the need for teachers, health workers,
administrators and private livelihoods is to be met. We recommend
that DFID significantly increase spending on education provided
DFID receives an overall increase in its total budget and its
number of staff in Burma. We further recommend that teacher training
be a priority.
Monastic education
154. ActionAid was concerned about DFID's support
for monastic education because of the current wave of Buddhist
fundamentalism in Burma.[181]
It also said:
The religious institution, whether it is primary
level or even higher level, does not bring good results in the
long run in any country.[182]
It is essential that religious education is inclusive
and we have to make sure it is impartial and not prejudiced.
155. The Head of DFID explained that monastic schools
currently taught about 20% of the children in Burma so they could
not be ignored by DFID if educational quality in Burma was to
be improved. DFID was therefore working with them as well as the
Government-run schools to train teachers.[183]
While in Burma we visited a monastic school near Mandalay and
spoke to the Headmaster; we saw no signs that the school was preaching
Buddhist fundamentalism. We also welcome the contribution DFID
was making to teacher training.
156. We support DFID's work with monastic schools
in raising the quality of education.
176 Save the Children (BUR 0032), para 1.3 Back
177
Department for International Development (BUR 0016), para 8 Back
178
Q 8 Back
179
Q35 Back
180
Q162 Back
181
Q11 Back
182
Q11 Back
183
Q163 Back
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