Re Education : Issue #28 - Myanmar : A Forgotten Tragedy
Education - fragmented and weaponised
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Quote of the Month
“We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
Mark Carney
The Coup
February 1st marked the fifth anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar, overthrowing the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD). Since the coup, the situation in Myanmar has deteriorated significantly.
According to the UN, at least 7,700 civilians have been killed, more than 22,000 arbitrarily detained, and at least 3.5m people have been displaced. The military junta has lost control over significant portions of the country ; rebel forces and ethnic armed groups now control about 42% of the territory.
The impact on education has been severe. The country has a school-age population of about 12 million, but in 2021 over half of the children disappeared from schools due to political polarisation and fear, with many moving to ethnic education systems or dropping out entirely. Although many children have found their way back to school, it’s estimated that as many as 3-4 million children remain without access to education. but for young adolescents it’s a greater crisis - among the 15-17 year age group nearly 60% are out of school.
That absence alone is a tragedy, but the junta is also accused of weaponising education in its fight against the rebels. To take one example, the government is informally pressuring government schools to only allow transfers from other government schools, thereby deliberately reducing mobility and curtailing pathways to higher levels of education.
Donors agencies, such as DFAT, FCDO and UNESCO have worked in Myanmar for decades and continue to work there, but not with the government. As an example, the Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) has been working with and on behalf of donors to coordinate and deliver support for education in disadvantaged areas since 2013. Since the coup MEC has been almost exclusively coordinating donor programmes with ethnic education service providers, monastic schools and community groups, but not government schools.
This donor policy raises uncomfortable questions – don’t all children in Myanmar have the right to be supported ? The position of donor withdrawal may have been understandable in 2021 but does it still make sense ? And, as this situation continues with no apparent end in sight, will it lead to a permanent bifurcation or fragmentation of the education system ?
Recently, I talked to a number of experienced educators, from different types of education organisations and donors working in Myanmar about the current educational situation, their worries and their hopes for the future. Understandably, they need to remain anonymous, but my thanks to them for their generosity and thoughtful responses. I did not talk to anyone representing the government education system.
The Aftermath - fragmentation and politicisation
The 2021 coup dramatically accelerated the fragmentation of Myanmar’s education system, reversing a decade of attempts from 2011 to bring greater coordination among several disparate systems. Today, multiple parallel systems operate side by side : government schools, monastic schools, private institutions, schools run by ethnic armed groups or by the National Unity Government (NUG) in rebel-controlled areas.
Education has become deeply politicised, with schools and children often caught in the crossfire of broader political struggles. The Ministry of Education’s influence is especially limited in rural and conflict-affected areas, where communities frequently run their own schools with little or no government support.
This fragmentation is not particularly new. Myanmar has never had a truly unified education system; rather, a patchwork of systems has always existed, though only recently has this diversity been formally acknowledged. The coup, however, made these divisions more explicit and paused earlier efforts (such as such as the Comprehensive Education Sector Review and National Education Strategic Plan) to find common ground and convergence among the various systems.
Aside from the inequity of differential levels of provision (e.g. in Mon, Kachin, Shan and Karen states education is prioritised and relatively well-funded, in other states less so) there is an inherent inefficiency in this level of fragmentation within such a small country. It’s poor value for money which Myanmar can ill afford. But, is efficiency the most important criteria if the alternative is poor or non-existent representation of different minorities ?
Boycotters and Collaborators
The consequences of this fragmentation are everywhere visible. Many schools in conflict zones have closed, and community-run schools face daunting challenges including a lack of recognition by the current Ministry of Education, inadequate funding, and a reliance on untrained volunteer teachers.
The quality of education is also highly variable, with acute shortages of materials and qualified teachers, particularly at the secondary level. In some areas, textbooks and resources must be smuggled in due to government restrictions. Students graduating from non-government schools often find themselves unable to transfer to public schools or pursue higher education due to the absence of government-recognised certification.
Recently, the government has issued instructions forbidding overage children, or those without proper transfer certificates, to enrol in government or monastic schools, further excluding vulnerable groups and those who have dropped out or been displaced. Added to economic hardship and ongoing conflict such restrictive policies have forced many children into the labour market, the military or armed groups.
In the Higher Education sector, which was acutely affected by the anti-coup resistance, the politicisation is even more stark. It’s estimated that 55% of all university teaching staff were suspended from their posts after the coup. In school education the figure for teachers is believed to be about 30%. The introduction of the 2024 Conscription Law has likely exacerbated the situation. (See this blog for some of the nuance).
As one commentator says in a forthcoming paper : “While the students and teachers boycotting state schools have been associated with the revolution, the teachers and students that chose to remain for various reasons have often been perceived as collaborators.”
Ethnic Minority Education
Education in ethnic minority areas is especially varied. Some regions have developed strong mother tongue-based multilingual education systems, which are seen as vital for cultural and linguistic preservation. However, in areas under mixed control, government influence often limits such approaches. Funding for these systems typically comes from community contributions, but even those can be a significant barrier for many families.
Language barriers and different systems further complicate access, as children from one region may not be able to attend schools in areas where a different language is spoken or teachers may not be able to move even between ethic education systems.
Such inequalities existed before the coup, but the period between 2011 and 2021 had been one of movement towards alignment while allowing for variation like mother tongue education, even if there was still strong suspicion of the centralising tendencies of the national government.
The Role of International Donors and NGOs
International donors and NGOs play a small but crucial role in Myanmar’s education sector, exclusively in non-government-controlled areas. Donor funding is both inadequate to meet the overall needs, but essential to the continuation of the work by Ethnic Based Education Providers (EBEP).
Donors avoid direct engagement with the military government, focusing instead on non-state actors. For example, MEC working with international donors, has shifted their support almost exclusively to ethnic education and, within that, the most disadvantaged groups. They act as both a coordinator and a provider of technical assistance, trying to facilitate coherence and standardisation of approaches within the ethic education sector.
In 2024/5 they reached over 440,000 students and 4,000 schools, providing 135,000 teaching & learning materials. The Myanmar Education Sector Representative Group has also helped to channel GPE and ECW funds that will reach about 550,000 of the most disadvantaged children.
But, this response, welcome as it is, is also widely recognised as woefully inadequate. According to some funding estimates, an annual budget of nearly $700 million is needed to support education in ethnic areas, but combined donor funds, spread over the next three years, will barely reach 10% of that ($69 million). Consequently, “localisation” in Myanmar is coming about not by design but through inadequate funding.
It’s an unusual, possibly unique, situation – an education system heavily dependent on international aid but almost completely bypassing the government system. It’s “working” for now, but, is almost certainly unsustainable.
Is there a way forward ?
The current donor policy to avoid engagement with the military government was understandable as a response to the coup. Now, five years on, with no sign of significant change, does it still make sense ? And how does it square with a rights-based approach to education ? Do children in government-controlled areas not deserve support from the international community ?
In the five years since the coup, principled stands such as the ones taken by donors have been eroded by ideology and power-based politics. Unpalatable truths are the order of the day. There are other countries in conflict where donors deal with unpleasant governments for the sake of safeguarding the rights of all children, including to education. Should they do so in Myanmar ?
From a pragmatic viewpoint, setting aside the thorny issue of engagement conferring legitimacy on the government, were international donors to start engaging with the military government, it is unlikely they could offer more money as an incentive unless this were part of a larger approach ; the reality is that donor budgets are being cut. Thus, engagement would bring significant risks to donors, but few benefits.
Consequently, without any significant levers to break the impasse, donors are left trying to work for standardisation across the disparate systems, focusing their efforts on coordination and coherence within ethnic education systems in the hope that this will be a long term benefit regardless of whether the system unifies in the future or continues on the current parallel track.
Nonetheless, a continuation of the status quo seems destined to lead to a permanently divided system.
For some, that is now an inevitability, and even perhaps a better outcome. They would argue that a unified education system is now impossible, even undesirable (and perhaps never was). They point to the greater regional / community level control of education already evident in non-government-controlled areas, to the better outcomes for children from learning in their own mother tongues and to the emergence of a more inclusive and democratic style of learning.
In other words, they would flip the question and argue that a federalist approach is the only way forward in what has, de facto, developed into a pluralistic system.
Sadly, what also seems clear is that, whatever happens, children will continue to suffer. Many of those unable to access schooling, or who are forced out of education by its weaponisation, will become recruits to the armed forces on both sides – or its victims.
Useful Links
Educational Access and Learning Outcomes in Myanmar. World Bank 2026
Caught Between Covid-19, Coup and Conflict - What Future for Myanmar Higher Education Reforms? Khaing Phyu Htut, Marie Lall and Camille Kandiko Howson. Published in Education Sciences
When education defies the odds: Higher education in Myanmar amid the ongoing political unrest. Lin Wai Phyo
Five Years After Myanmar Coup “Even Hope Has Become a Risk” New York Times 9th February 2026
Inside Myanmar’s five-year armed resistance – a photo essay | Myanmar | The Guardian 1st February 2026
Myanmar Education Consortium website.
“Impact of Catch-Up Clubs in Conflict-Affected Myanmar: A Community-Led Remedial Learning Model” Silvia Mila Arlini, Nora Charif Chefchaouni, Jessica Chia, Mya Gordon, and Nishtha Shrestha
UNESCO unpublished report.
News
The REAL Centre and the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) have published a new and timely report entitled “Palestinian Education Still Under Attack”. At the launch in Cambridge Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot spoke eloquently and movingly about the continued and deliberate erasure of educational opportunity in Gaza. A short version of his remarks here - with a link to the full speech.
Luminos Fund have published a new report called “Learning for All: A Luminos White Paper on Advancing Inclusion in Low-Learning Contexts”. At its heart is the reality that “inclusion” in situations where the majority of children are not learning is …actually providing good quality education for all. As a thesis, and a practical one at that, it’s difficult to disagree with, but, I’m not sure it gets us very far and it feels very similar to the endless debate over the Learning Crisis. In other words, an analysis and a prescription that is too big to be actionable because it’s so far from where the funding is.
Cambridge Education, my old company, is doing an online Legacy Seminar Series as they prepare to close their doors this year. (Some of the) 45 years of experience distilled - click here for details and to register.
On 20th January Baroness Chapman, Minister of State, appeared in front of the International Development Committee (IDC) answering questions on FCDO strategy and restructuring (first ten mins). She was asked about the move from grants to expertise being trailed as a key change in policy.
Her answer, using education as her primary example, showed a shocking lack of understanding of the high quality technical assistance that DFID/FCDO has provided over the last 25 years, almost all of which has been directed at strengthening host government ownership and capacity to deliver high quality education.
Here’s how she described the “new” world of expertise.
And we can get our professional teachers, we can get our education advisors, our universities working together with the country so that they can improve their own systems and deliver their own education systems for their children. And that's better in the long term than us showing up and providing education to a population where they don't have much control over it. We might be using local teaching staff, we might not. (my italics)
The expertise she describes has just been shredded by her government’s policies vid. the closure of Cambridge Education and the slow death of other contractors and NGOs with this specific type of education capacity.
Even more disappointing was the low level of political leadership and understanding among committee members. None of the members of the IDC challenged this mis-characterisation, despite the numerous visits made to countries to learn about the UK’s support for education in LMICs. They were more concerned with the lack of consultation on restructuring, and called for a pause.
Send My Friend to School celebrated their 25th Anniversary in the days before the International Day of Education on January 24th. They were supported by several parliamentarians and have engaged over 10,000 UK schools in supporting international education.
Geneva Summer Schools are offering a course in Education in Emergencies in June. Click here for details.
Development
Duncan Green, LSE Lecturer and Oxfam Adviser has appeared with Naomi Hossain , Sarah Pickard and Matthew Campbell in this interesting 9 minute piece on Gen Z protests How Gen Z Organises Decentralised Protests Without Leaders. Green has an excellent suggestion on sell-by dates for politicians !
Quite a few articles have appeared recently taking a more self-critical line on the collapse of USAID and the attacks on multilateral institutions. Tania Cernuschi, a senior health specialist with WHO, gets the balance between anger at the destruction and remorse at institutional navel-gazing about right : Trump Didn’t Break the Multilateral System. He Exposed Its Fragility - Speaking of Medicine and Health
Ken Opalo has a new piece on reimaging aid : The international development community isn’t adapting fast enough to official aid cuts. That’s a big problem. As usual he is perceptive and practical : give more agency to locals and abandon current models. But he doesn’t address the structures and imperatives of donors that drive the current models. In the early 2000s DFID tried to change their model radically with SWAPs and Budgetary Support. But, they couldn’t let go enough to make it work because of democratic accountability concerns. Can it change now when there is even greater scepticism and suspicion ?
If you are interested in serious journalism and comment about Africa you may be interested in The Continent, a weekly digital newspaper designed to be shared by WhatsApp / Signal etc. (to avoid censorship). Issue 225 has an interesting piece on sex education across Africa with Madagascar the most open minded and Morocco the least. There’s also a good review of Howard French’s new book “The Second Emancipation”.
AI Spy
“A computer can never be held accountable. Therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” IBM training manual 1979
The Good….
Brookings Report “A new direction for students in an AI world : Prosper, Prepare, Protect” warns of AI risks, but says “it’s not too late to bend the arc on AI implementation”. If your attention span is too short for that (!) try this 3 minutes video synopsis.
Get AI to fight, not spoon feed. Interesting piece on using AI in the classroom as a debating tool - with walk through slides.
Paul Atherton got very excited about creating a phonics app in 3 hours that would have taken 6 months, and a lot more resources, in the past.
…and the bad….
Educators are going to see and hear a lot more about “attachment hacking” soon. It’s not attention hacking, it’s much more serious, and like much of the turmoil in our world today, it’s all about trust. This podcast from Your Undivided Attention, Attachment Hacking and the Rise of AI Psychosis takes listeners carefully through the issues - and many of the examples given are from education. Strongly recommended.
Margo O’Sullivan posted an article about teachers “resisting” AI. Articles that take a historical perspective usually have some interesting angles to offer on what appears to be a new problem but is, in fact, an old one. Channel your inner Luddite – and not in the way you think ! Teach like a Luddite - Kappan Online
Voices from the front
The Grand Bargain Community of Practice is calling for stories of the impact of aid cuts - see here.
Lively Minds has been doing some interesting work in Ghana engaging parents in early years education. A blog on the GPE website summarises it nicely and a working paper has just been published reviewing the work “Parents in the classroom: strengthening government capacity to deliver early childhood education”. More on this in a future issue.
When there are so many stories worldwide of languages being lost or deliberately marginalised, this move to include the Jarai language in Cambodia’s multilingual education was a pleasant surprise.
The School Meals Coalition has announced the launch of a School Meals Accelerator with a bold mission : “To help low- and lower-middle-income countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030, making school meals a cornerstone of human capital development and a global standard of care.” All power to them - hungry kids don’t learn.
Voices from the rear
(Gray and Published Research)
A January Economist article called “Ed Tech is Profitable : it is also mostly useless” cites research in the US (see below) linking poor performance, distraction and lack of meaningful engagement with ed tech. This joins a slew of articles that has been appearing recently linking ed tech to a decline in learning and cognitive abilities (see previous issues). The best quote comes from a parent : “Imagine if all that money had gone into teachers instead.”
The Open University Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD), the What Works Hub (WWH) and UKFIET have all recently published newsletters. WWH also have a conference coming on 15-16th September 2026 at the Blavatnik School in Oxford (this year being an “off” year for UKFIET). All have plenty of interest to global educators. For UKFIET, click link above, for CSGD click here. For WWH click here, scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up.
And finally
It’s Chinese New Year this week - the Year of the Fire Horse. In one factory they sewed the mouths on upside down (deliberately ?) - now there’s a huge demand for these “crying horses”. Symbols of a worrying year to come perhaps ?
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