"The Government of Myanmar has recently stepped up efforts to strengthen the education sector, recognizing the vital role of an educated population and workforce as a prerequisite for sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. This is reflected in the government?s critical decision in early 2012 to embark on a Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR 2 ), as a basis for more clearly identifying sector challenges, priority areas, and strategic options. 3 The education sector has made important progress in recent years, perhaps particularly in primary education (grades 1-5), with the net enrolment ratio (NER) reaching roughly 90% in school year SY2009/2010. 4 However, progress has lagged in post-primary education (PPE) levels, with NER estimates for the secondary education subsector (SES) ranging from only 53.0% to 58.3%, and much lower for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and the higher education subsector (HES). Moreover, there is evidence that SES, TVET, and HES face particular challenges in terms of education quality and subsector management. As Myanmar embarks on dramatic socioeconomic transformations, these subsectors must play a particularly critical role in promoting inclusive growth and poverty reduction, meeting rapidly evolving labor market needs, and rebalancing and equipping the economy to modernize and climb the technological ladder into higher value-added sectors and successfully enter into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 and global markets. Addressing such gaps in access, quality and relevance, and management is thus a high priority..."