MEC Contested Areas Report - WordPress

Girl from Karen Thai-based refugee camp. Credit: Save the Children ThailandMTB-MLEMother-Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education is the internationallyrecommended approach to delivering education in multi-lingualstates and areas with large ethnic minority populationsNationalWe use “national” in two senses: 1) as a name for activities at theUnion State level, and 2) as a name for activities at ethnic state level.Parallel systemsRefers to the existence of one or more systems of organised provisionof education within a larger (national) framework. It is oftenconsidered wasteful because of duplication and diversification ofresources. It is often considered negatively because it impliesduplication of services and diversification of resources. In Myanmar,we argue, it is a necessity to ensure the continuation of basiceducational services within ethnic areas in a situation where thegovernment neither has the commitment nor the capacity to ensurethis provision.Analysis of Education Services in Contested Regions of Myanmar9

AcronymsACSAdventist Community ServicesADRAAdventist Development in RuralAreaAGArmed GroupCBCapacity BuildingCBOCommunity Based OrganisationCDCurriculum DevelopmentCNFChin National FrontCSOCivil Society OrganisationDEODistrict Education OfficerDKBADemocratic Karen BenevolentArmyEAGsEthnic Armed GroupsEEOsEthnic Education OrganisationsEMISEducation ManagementInformation SystemEOEducation OfficerEPRPEthnic Peace Resources ProjectGERGross Enrolment RatioHEHigher EducationHSHigh SchoolILOInternational Labour OrganisationIHLCSIntegrated Household LivingConditions SurveyINSETIn-Service Teacher TrainingIRCInternational Rescue CommitteeKBCKachin Baptist ConventionKEDKaren Education DepartmentKIAKachin Independence ArmyKIO CCKachin Independence CouncilKIO EdKachin IndependenceOrganisation EducationDepartment (KIO-ED)KMSSKaruna Myanmar Social Services10Myanmar Education ConsortiumKnEDKarenni Education DepartmentKNLAKaren National Liberation ArmyKPCKaren Peace Council (KNLAPCKaren National Liberation ArmyPeace Council)KNUKaren National UnionKNGYKarenni New Generation YouthKnLCCKarenni Language and CulturalCommitteeKNPPKarenni National People’s PartyKRCEEKaren Refugee Camps EducationEntityKSEAGKaren State EducationAssistance GroupKTWGKaren Teachers’ Working GroupKWOKaren Women OrganisationKWOKachin Women OrganisationMBCMyanmar Baptist ConventionMCCMyanmar Christian ChurchesCouncilMECMyanmar Education ConsortiumMNECMon National EducationCommitteeMNEDMon National EducationDepartmentMoEMinistry of EducationMORAMinistry of Religious AffairsNMSPNew Mon State PartyMINEMyanmar Indigenous Networkfor EducationEBCSEastern Burma CommunitySchoolsMORAMinistry of Religious AffairsMTB-MLEMother Tongue based Multi

Lingual EducationMTTMobile Teacher TrainerNatalaMinistry of Border AffairsNERNET Enrolment RatioNNERNational Network for EducationReformNPANorwegian People’s AidPLEProject for Local EmpowermentPNLAPa ‘Oh Liberation ArmyPNOPa ‘Oh National OrganisationPRESETPre-Service Teacher TrainingPTAParent Teacher AssociationPTR“Pupil Teacher Ratio” (read:Student-Teacher Ratio)RPFRahmonya Peace FoundationRDSSRural Development For ShanStateRDFSSRural Development FoundationFor Shan StateSLORCState Law and Order RestorationCouncilSMCSchool Management CommitteeSSA-NShan State Army (North)SSA-SShan State Army (South)TEOTownship Education OfficerTLMTeaching Learning MaterialsTMDTatmadaw (Army)TTTeacher TrainingUNICEFUnited Nations Children’s FundUWSAUnited Wa Solidarity ArmyWBWorld BankWEWorld EducationZOA‘Zuid Oost Azië’3MDG3 Millennium DevelopmentGoalsChildren at Mai Maw Middle School, Wa StateCredit: Myanmar Education ConsortiumMai Maw Township, Wa StateCredit: Myanmar Education ConsortiumAnalysis of Education Services in Contested Regions of Myanmar11

1. IntroductionMyanmar’s people comprise a majority Bamarethnic population (approximately 60%3) anda variety of smaller groups of diverse culturesand identities, commonly referred to inMyanmar as ethnic nationality groups4. TheBamar population lives mostly in the centralplains of the country (corresponding in theconstitution to seven ‘regions’), as well as inthe larger towns of the hilly areas that ringthe country, which are divided up into seven‘states’, designated on the basis of the majorityethnic population in those areas, but populatedby a diverse range of ethnic groups. Theseseven states are the ‘contested areas’ to whichthis consultancy refers5.For much of Myanmar’s independence (andduring earlier periods as well), relationsbetween the majority Bamar population andgroups with different languages and cultureshas been characterised by tension andoutbreaks of conflict, over claims to ethnicrights and identity, self-governance and controlover natural resources. These conflicts haveresulted in large-scale migration from manyof Myanmar’s designated states, causingtens of thousands to become displaced orto flee across the border into Thailand, anddestroying the economic and developmentfoundations of communities6. In areas where3. Actual percentage not known and controversial; 2014census data on ethnicity has not yet been released due tothe possibility this could trigger conflict between differentgroups.4. A classification of these groups was undertaken in the1980s, which divided up Myanmar’s population into 135official ‘national races’; however the categorisations are widelycontested. For a useful explanation of the futility – and the risks– of defining fixed ethno-linguistic categories, see Martin Smith,Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity, 1991.5. The terms of reference for the consultancy called for ‘anoverview of the context in the designated states in Myanmar,excluding Rakhine’.6. For useful summaries see Tom Kramer, Developing Disparity:Regional Investment in Burma’s Borderlands, TNI, 2013;12Myanmar Education Consortiumcontrol is contested by armed groups and thegovernment, education and health serviceshave been sparse or non-existent. Nonetheless,many communities and the educationdepartments of some ethnic armed groupshave been able to establish comprehensiveeducation systems and reasonably wellfunctioning community schools.Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) is acoalition of three INGOs, Save the Children,World Vision and Burnet Institute. MECworks with partners to improve education formarginalised children in Myanmar, who arenot fully served by the government system.MEC supports complementary basic educationservices through funding to partners to deliverservices and organisational support to buildeffective organisations. MEC is currentlydeveloping a revised strategy and as part ofthis they want to consider how MEC couldprovide support to education in ethnic areas.This consultancy report was commissioned toprovide an evidence base and strategic adviceto this process.The purpose of the consultancy is:1. To provide a situational analysis on basiceducation in contested areas includingbarriers for children in achieving a qualityeducation2. To provide an analysis of existing systemsand organisations providing educationservices, the support they receive and areaswhere systems could be strengthened3. To identify opportunities for MEC to providesupport4. To provide recommendations for MECprogramme design.International Crisis Group, Myanmar: A New Peace Initiative, 30November 2011.

2. BackgroundIn November 2010, following the roadmapset out in the 2008 constitution, Myanmarheld parliamentary elections. These electionsmarked a transition from military rule to quasidemocratic rule, as indicated by the fact thatthe many candidates for election who camefrom the ruling military had to step down fromthe military in order to run. In March 2011, inhis inaugural speech, President Thein Sein setout his plan for the country’s development anddemocratic transition under his presidentialterm, with specific commitments for politics,peace, the economy and social sectors includingeducation7. This speech was followed by theinitiation of multiple parallel reform processes.These processes include reform of the country’spolitical order through the implementation andreview of the 2008 constitution, the negotiationof ceasefire agreements and the launching of apeace process to end the country’s long-runningcivil conflicts, and the reform of the educationsector. Since late 2012 education reform hasbeen mainly through the donor-supportedand Ministry of Education-run ComprehensiveEducation Sector Review, as well as aparliamentary law development process (sincelate 2013). While the processes are interlinked,they have often seemed to run in parallel toeach other with very little opportunities toensure coordination or coherence.increasing financial and economic dependenceon China8. OECD governments, which hadmassively restricted their developmentbudgets in Myanmar as part of a programmeof economic sanctions and isolation of themilitary regime9, started to rapidly re-engagewith Myanmar from ca. 2012 onwards10, withcorresponding aid commitments.Arguably the driving motivation for thesereforms (aside from the military’s commitmentto seeing out the roadmap it set for itselfwhen it took power in the 1990s) has beenthe prospect of increased investment – botheconomic investment and developmentaid – for Myanmar’s chronic state of underdevelopment, and in light of the country’s9. Between 1990 and 2007 Myanmar had the lowest ratesof overseas aid of all 50 countries with least developedcountry (LDC) status. Soubhik Ronnie Saha, Working ThroughAmbiguity: International NGOs in Myanmar, The Hauser Centerfor Nonprofit Organisations, Harvard University, 2011. ODA percapita had fallen back to 5.6 in 2010, in line with the 19902007 levels of less than 5 annually. Ibid and Myanmar: ODAshrinks post-Nargis, Irin News, 24 January 2011.7. President Thein Sein’s inaugural speech to the PyidaungsuHluttaw, 30 March 2011, republished in English in The NewLight of Myanmar, 31 March 2011.11. See e.g. Hayden M and Martin R (2013), ‘Recovery of theEducation System in Myanmar’, Journal of International andComparative Education, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2.An election is scheduled for later this year(November 2015), on which numerousexpectations regarding the democratictransition are pinned, but which itself carriesmultiple risks in relation to conflict within thecountry as well as for existing education (andother development) plans.Education backgroundDecades of underinvestment in, andmismanagement of, Myanmar’s educationsystem on the part of successive military andquasi-military governments have resulted inchronic inequalities in access to educationacross the country, and chronically poor qualityeducation provision11. The military government,which ruled from 1990 to 2010, strictly limitedinternational involvement in and support8. International Crisis Group, Myanmar’s Military: Back to theBarracks? 22 April 2014.10. Although there had been some prior engagement, largelyforgotten now. See Lex Rieffel, The Economy of Burma/Myanmar on the Eve of the 2010 Elections, United StatesInstitute of Peace, 2010.Analysis of Education Services in Contested Regions of Myanmar13

for the education sector, as did the BurmeseSocialist Progress Party (BSPP) regime before it(1962-1988).Most international support for educationduring this period was directed towards themultiplicity of non-state actors working tofill the gaps in the government’s educationprovision, through monastic and other faithbased schools, civil society initiatives and theeducation programmes of non-state armedgroups12. This resulted in the provision of donorsupport to a number of parallel educationsystems that were set up in non-governmentcontrolled areas and in the refugee campson the Thai side of the border. A substantialamount of that aid was delivered cross-borderfrom Thailand13. It was in this pre-transitioncontext that MEC was first developed.The transition period has seen a massiveshift in terms of the way that internationalsupport to education is delivered in Myanmar.The international community in Yangon(the former capital) and Naypyidaw (thecapital) has agreed to commit substantialamounts of funding towards governmenteducation programmes14, and has supporteda government-led education reform process,the Comprehensive Education Sector Review(CESR), which is intended to culminate thisyear (2015) in the finalisation of a costedNational Education Sector Plan (NESP).12. Jasmin Lorch, Myanmar’s Civil Society – a Patch for theNational Education System? The Emergence of Civil Society inAreas of State Weakness, Sudöstasian Aktuell, 2007/3.13. Figures for the amount of cross-border aid are not known.14. See particularly Australia (Steve Tickner, Australia Pledges80 million for Burmese Education, 11 June 2012, The -pledges-80m-forburmese-education.html); EU [EU Relations with Myanmar/Burma, http://eeas.europa.eu/myanmar/index en.htm];Record of Discussion on the Project for Curriculum Reform atPrimary Level of Basic Education in Myanmar in the Republicof the Union of Myanmar, Agreed Upon between the Ministryof Education and Japan International Cooperation Agency, 31January 2014.14Myanmar Education ConsortiumHowever, the education reform process itselfhas been highly politicised15, with manygroups feeling excluded from, or questioningthe genuineness of, the reform. Populardiscontent culminated in the countrywidestudent protest movement, which started inearly 2014 and was largely directed againstthe new Education Law (passed 30 September201416). This movement grew to the extentthat in March 2015, the government agreedto amend the law, but the revisions madein parliament seem to have resulted in veryfew – if any – substantive changes to the 2014Law. Ethnic groups are one of the many groupsthat have felt excluded from the process andare concerned about the unrepresentativenature of the law and of the CESR/NESP.During this time the government has alsoincreased funding to education significantly(from a very low base) and introduceda number of programmes designed todemonstrate its commitment to reform inthe education sector. These programmesinclude mass recruitment and deployment ofteachers, making primary education ‘free andcompulsory’17, construction of classrooms, andintroduction of a schools grants and stipendsprogramme, now supported by Australia andthe World Bank.Conflict backgroundIn August 2011, the government invited ethnicarmed groups for peace talks18, and since15. See Pyoe Pin, The Political Economy of Basic Education inMyanmar, March 2014. This dynamic is common across manyaspects of the reform.16. National Network for Education Reform (NNER), Request toGovernment, Hluttaw and Educational organisations concernabout the student’s demonstration on National Education Law,27 January 2015.17. Myanmar, National Education Law (2014, Parliamentary LawNo. 41), 1376, New Moon of Thadingyut 7th day, September 30,2014.18. The process is set out in Richard Horsey, Prospects for theMyanmar Peace Process, CPPF Research Paper, January 2015 and

October 2013, the present government and 16armed groups19 have been working towards thesigning of a nationwide ceasefire agreement(NCA). The expectation on the part of both thegovernment and the armed groups is that afterthe NCA has been signed, the peace processwill continue in the form of a political dialoguebetween a wider group of actors20. The majorityof the armed actors involved in the process claimto represent an ethnic minority population, andsome of these groups have been in conflict withthe government for over 60 years21.understand the underlying causes and driversof ethnic-central government conflicts, as thesegreatly influence and affect the debate abouteducation in ethnic nationality areas. In brief,these might be described as:19. The number of armed groups who will be allowed to signthe NCA is the major remaining point of contention betweenthe government and the armed groups. Nyein Nyein and NengSeng Nom, “All-inclusive pact proves elusive as latest peacetalks close”, 7 August 2015, The Irrawaddy. See also RichardHorsey, Myanmar: What Next for the Peace Process?, CPPFBriefing Paper, 10 June 2015. Throughout the years of conflict,many ethnic states have become host to numerous militias –both government and non-government affiliated – as well asthe armed groups recognised as part of the peace process. Thisfurther complicates the situation on the ground.The desire on the part of the ethnic groupsfor a level of self-governance (differsbetween each group how much and whatthis would look like), and a fundamentaldifference of opinion as to what a ‘federal’state would look like and the risk (as seenby the government) it might pose to centralunity24 The desire for recognition of ethnic rights,culture and identity in the face of perceived(and possibly actual) strategies on the partof the central Tatmadaw/government toimpose a unifying and homogenising visionof the Myanmar state. Education is a keypart of this, and is one of the priority agendapoints for the political dialogue that it ishoped will take place as part of the peaceprocess Grievances as a result of war crimes andhuman rights violations on both sides, butparticularly the harsh military policies of theTatmadaw (the Myanmar armed forces)25 Control over taxation and extraction ofnatural resources26 Questions concerning the legitimacy ofthe state in providing services – includingeducation services – in these areas, and theunderdevelopment of ethnic areas despitethe abundance of natural resources in many(though not all) of these areas.While some conflicts have lasted more than20. See Euro-Burma Office briefing papers e.g. DEED ofCOMMITMENT For Peace and Reconciliation, February 2015;presentation of Hannes Siebert and colleagues to InternationalPeace Support Group (IPSG), Yangon, 13 May 2015.24. Arguably the main reason for the 1962 coup, as U Nuappeared to be willing to discuss options for federalism, andthe Shan states were developing their own constitution. SeeMartin Smith 1991.21. Ashley South, Burma’s Longest War: Anatomy of the KarenConflict, TNI, 201125. See Martin Smith 1991 and Bertil Lintner 2000 as well asreports of human rights watchdogs. For a recent example, seeALTSEAN Burma, Ethnic Areas Update: Burma Heads TowardsCivil War, 2011.Conflict broke out across Burma (as it was thencalled) almost as soon as the country gainedindependence from Britain in 1948. Whileone of the main post-independence uprisingswas communist, the politics of ethnic identityhave played a defining role in the conflicts thathave ebbed and flowed since that time, andalmost all of the armed groups have claimedto represent a particular ethnic minoritypopulation22. The dynamics of conflict hadbeen set long before and crystallised during thecolonial perio

The report argues that support to ethnic education providers is essential for ensuring that children in many ethnic nationality areas of Myanmar have access to education. Ethnic education providers should be supported because they have greater legitimacy and coverage than the government in many ethnic nationality areas, and thus funding