Early Childhood Education, Language of Instruction, and Child Development in Myanmar: Comparisons among Ethnolinguistic Groups

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: This study examined the relation between early childhood education (ECE) participation and early child development in Myanmar. It considered whether this relation varied by ethnic group, language(s) spoken at home, and language(s) of ECE instruction. Participants were 1,494 children (759 girls) from Myanmar, aged between 36 and 71 months. Children were directly assessed using the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales. ECE participation was associated with higher composite developmental scores and higher scores across 7 domains, and ethnic group did not moderate ECE-development associations. ECE dosage of between 12 and 18 months was associated with the highest developmental scores. For ethnic minority children, minority-language ECE instruction was associated with higher developmental scores regardless of language(s) spoken at home, but Myanmar-language ECE instruction was associated with higher developmental scores only for children also exposed to Myanmar at home. Practice or Policy: Findings highlight the benefits of ECE participation for the holistic development of both ethnic majority and minority children. The policy of ECE programme expansion in Myanmar may be delivering benefits to children’s development, but further efforts may be needed to deliver language support for ethnic minority children not exposed to Myanmar language at home.

Acknowledgments

This study is based on a grant awarded to Nirmala Rao by UNICEF Myanmar and was funded by UNICEF Myanmar, Denmark, and the European Union as part of the Building on Quality Basic Education Programme. We are very grateful to the Myanmar team for overseeing and implementing the survey on which this study is based. We thank the Rector of the Yangon University of Education, the professors and students from the Education Psychology Department of the Yangon University of Education, the education officials from the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Education, Research, Planning, and Training of the Ministry of Education, and the team at UNICEF Myanmar. We also express our gratitude to the children and parents who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.