Myanmar’s President, Thein Sein, recently outlined plans to increase the nation’s financial investment in the education sector, stating that education would be the key to progressing economic development.
Sein stressed the need to establish more vocational schools to help foster a skilled workforce, indicating that teachers would be solely responsible for enhancing human capital. Also mentioned was the importance of establishing international partnerships.
“Myanmar universities are networking with prestigious seats of education from South Korea, Japan, and so on, including John Hopkins University,” said Sein.
Myanmar’s Dagon University and South Korea’s Pukyong National University signed a mutual agreement to collaborate with Myanmar institutions on education and research development. The two universities propose to coordinate student exchange programs, increase interchange between researchers, and exchange academic publications.
President Sein acknowledges the concerns raised by the National League for Democracy (NLD), which claims that not enough funding is allocated to social service fields. According to last year’s budget reports, 23.6% of spending went to defense, 1.3% to health, and 4.3% to education.
However, the plans also put added pressure on educators to turn out results. We say, why not go straight to the source? Developing teacher support may actually be one of the greatest forms of educational investment.
Creative Commons Love: Roger Price on Flickr.com
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