Post-secondary Education in Myanmar: Realities and Possibilities

This past June, over 160 participants joined a two-day, online conference entitled “Post-Secondary Education: Realities and Possibilities” hosted by our partner organisation Mote Oo, in collaboration with Child’s Dream. The conference provided opportunities for participants to reconnect and explore sector-wide needs and solutions for post-secondary education in Myanmar, and highlighted the following themes: resilience in crisis, effective teaching and learning strategies, community and school engagement, and sustainable and inclusive school management and administration.

Some highlights of the conference included a session led by Child’s Dream Managing Director of Programmes, Daniel Siegfried, and Mote Oo’s Curriculum Writer and Trainer, Jordan Pescrillo, exploring Child’s Dream’s past and current work to empower Myanmar youth and the opportunities Child’s Dream and the Conference Coordination Committee can offer to the post-secondary sector. Another highlight included a panel discussion moderated by previous Child’s Dream employee, Wai Lin, entitled “Navigating Further Education: Scholarships and Study Abroad.”

The conference resulted in several important findings. The post-secondary sector is currently facing very significant challenges due to the pandemic and political upheaval, including restrictions on face-to-face teaching, access to finances and security concerns. Post-secondary providers are rising to these challenges and finding innovative solutions, including moving to online teaching when practical. Despite these exceptionally difficult circumstances, post-secondary schools have managed the continuous provision of education, thereby fulfilling vital education needs. As a conclusion, it was found that the sector needs greater levels of support, recognition, resource allocation, and capacity development.

Post-conference plans have been made to allow participants to continue to network and support each other, including a Facebook group for regular updates about school recruitment, job opportunities, scholarship opportunities, as well as teaching and management resources, a YouTube channel to review videos from the conference, and mini-grant opportunities from the Conference Coordination Committee.