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Abstract
In Myanmar schools, rote learning is the norm. International aid and education organisations based in the country have been trying to promote the child centred approach (CCA) as a much more progressive form of teaching and learning. The CCA is being rolled out principally through monastic school networks aided by international and national Non-Government Organisations and commercial teacher training providers and consultants. The interaction between international non-government organisations and non-government organisations, international funding and local monastic schools has created an interesting international and cross-national interagency network. The article is based on original fieldwork research in Myanmar with classroom observations in 11 non-state-sector schools, interviews with 66 teachers and 19 teacher trainers. Focus groups were also held with 58 parents or grandparents across four schools. The roll out of CCA has led to a number of different local reactions. Whilst many will admit that CCA is a ‘better’ approach to teaching and learning, the principal issue identified by teachers, head monks and parents is the fact that this western approach undermines traditional hierarchical structures of respect for teachers and elders, leading to a culture clash at home and in the classroom.
Notes
1. However, (predominantly ethnic nationality) people living in areas affected by ongoing armed conflict often lack access to basic schooling. There are also access issues in more remote rural areas.
2. Teaching both in and outside the state sector is badly paid and there is a shortage of teachers, especially in the rural areas. Therefore even in the state schools one will find teachers without the required qualification. In the monastic sector few teachers have studied beyond secondary school.
3. ‘Divisions’ have since been renamed ‘Regions’.
4. It is not helpful with regard to monastic schools to talk about year groups and age ranges, as multi-age and multi-grade teaching are common and it differs from school to school and area to area.
5. Their families comprised 236 children or grandchildren.
6. Even if a student finishes school he or she will be very young – in Myanmar children start school at the age of five. Primary and secondary schooling lasts 11 years. This means that when the students are ready to start university they are 16 years of age.
7. The ‘better’ monastic schools will however often require a donation of some sort to register the child.
8. This means that there could be well over double that number in the non-registered but affiliated monastic schools and even more children when border areas are taken into account. There are no figures on the ratio of children attending state and monastic schools.
9. Interview, Yangon 8 June, 2010.
10. See, for example, the incorporation of activities based learning (a form of CCA) into India's Sarva Siksha Abhiyan programme (the national education reform programme for primary schools). This document, taken from the Tamil Nadu government links it with EFA. http://www.ssa.tn.nic.in/CurrActivities-A.htm
11. See, for example, the adoption of the term ‘child friendly’ as part of Pakistan's national education policy (http://www.moe.gov.pk/nepr/NEP_2009.PDF p. 22 and http://icfe.teachereducation.net.pk/documents/Draft%20Session%20Plan.pdf)
14. Save the Children is one of the few organisation operating in education in Myanmar which has a website, however with very little information on their work: http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6150543/k.D615/Myanmar.htm Yinthway - http://www.yinthway.org/; APEF - http://www.apef.org.au/education.html. Given the size and resources of the other local organisations and the fact that they would prefer to avoid governmental scrutiny no information is available on the internet.
15. Given the sensitivity of the programme and the funder, both have to remain unnamed.