Education rights: standards and mechanisms
Websites/Multiple Documents
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
English
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Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
English
more
Individual Documents
Description:
"If they want to achieve their rights they need to fight with education, not weapons, they said
Rohingya children should be educated in their own language as they need to cope up with their life in Myanmar in future after getting repatriated, speakers said at a webinar
They were speaking at a webinar titled, ‘Education for Rohingya children’ organized by PEN Bangladesh, on Wednesday, marking International Literacy Day.
Masum Billah, of the Out of School Education Program of Brac, said the Rohingya children need to get educated in their vernacular language or in English.
“They will learn Bangla naturally as they are living here. However, the medium of their schooling should not be Bangla. They should get educated in English or in their own language in schools. That will help them in the long run,” he said.
He also said, Brac is running 700 learning centers in the camps; however, young adults do not have many opportunities to study in the camps. “Only two schools are there for secondary education,”
However, there are some religious schools in the camps but some children do not want to go there, according to the Brac official.
“They are more eager to go to learning centers as they can have cultural activities like drawing, singing and dancing there,” he told the webinar.
Journalist Israt Jahan Urmi said the people who had a traumatic childhood are more prone to get involved in criminal activities later in their lives but education can save them.
“Children need education to keep them occupied. When they get repatriated, they need to go back with institutionalized education,” she said.
Security analyst AK Mohammed Ali Sikder said the Rohingya children should learn their vernacular language and need to be educated about their culture and heritage.
“If they want to achieve their rights they need to fight with education, not weapons,” said the retired Bangladesh Army major general.
PEN Bangladesh Vice-President Biswajit Ghosh, who presided over the webinar, said: “Literacy is a human rights issue and Rohingya children should not be deprived of it just because they were displaced from their homeland.”
Researcher Gouranga Mohanta said: “If we can plan the right kind of education program, implementation would not be a real challenge.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2021-09-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Children, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Education rights: standards and mechanisms, Akha (cultural, political, economic)
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Description:
"Myanmar’s higher education (HE) sector is stunted in almost every respect, due to prolonged underinvestment and over-centralization. Research has shown that the sector is ‘poor by any standard’ and is facing enormous challenges. For one, the state´s provision of HE is inadequate. Only 11% of Myanmar´s youth, which refers to a small number of middle-class students, have access to state-run higher education. Thus, the private sector, which includes both for-profit and non-profit institutions, has become an important HE provider in Myanmar. Despite this, private education provision, particularly of the non-profit sector, is largely overlooked by studies conducted on Myanmar´s education. Non-profit private higher education institutions (HEIs) deserve more research attention because they not only patch up the state´s weaknesses in educational provision, but they also make HE accessible and affordable in the country´s peripheries.
Therefore, in a study conducted under ChinBridge Institute’s Research Fellowship program, from which this Tea Circle article is adapted, I discussed what it would take to sustain non-profits’ provision of higher education in Chin State, one of Myanmar’s most remote areas. The study was motivated by my volunteering experience as a teacher at the Chin Christian University, a non-profit private university in Hakha, Chin State. The study focused on how these HEIs can best use the readily available resources rather than acquiring more.
Public HEIs in Myanmar
Myanmar’s higher education sector is highly centralized and state-controlled. All of the country’s 174 public higher education institutions (HEIs) are overseen by the government, the European Union-funded project CHINLONE reported in 2018. CHINLONE stands for ‘Connecting Higher Education Institutions for a New Leadership in National Education’. It is also the name of a Myanmar traditional sport that emphasizes cooperation and teamwork. Eight ministries are involved in managing the HEIs, including the Ministry of Education.
In Myanmar, private HEIs are not HEIs in a legal sense, regardless of whether they are for-profit or non-profit. They are registered as either companies under the Ministry of Trade and Commerce or as NGOs. In mid-2020, the government allowed private schools offering higher education to register, using a form called the “Private HEIs Form”. The government stated that the private school registration would be a pathway for these institutions to gain accreditation. However, private HEI registration was closed later that year before any HEIs were approved.
Access to higher education in Chin State
Now, let’s have a peek at how public HEIs are distributed across the country. In 2012, there were 164 public HEIs in the country. Mandalay had 36 HEIs, Yangon 33, Sagaing 14, and the country’s poorest states—Chin and Kayah state—had 3 public HEIs respectively, as reported in the 2013 Myanmar Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR) Report.
The 3 public HEIs listed under Chin State in the CESR report, Kalay University, Technological University (Kalay) and University of Computer Studies (Kalay), are all situated in Kalay town in Sagaing Region. Kalay is at least a 6 hour-drive from Chin State’s capital, Hakha, depending on prevailing weather and road conditions, which is often at its worst during the rainy season.
Thus, in fact, there were no public universities in Chin State in 2012. The first public university, Hakha University, came to Hakha only in November 2016.
Why is that a problem? An average Chin family would probably have to sell a pig or two to get to Kalay. Living expenses would cost even more. Getting a university degree is expensive for marginalized Chin youth, given that they would have to travel far away from home. Access to higher education is also a problem elsewhere in Myanmar, but Chin State’s situation is particularly dire, due to Chin State’s remote geography and the government’s failure to establish sufficient HEIs there.
Non-profit HEIs in Chin State
As of 2021, Chin State has 6 public HEIs; namely Hakha University, Hakha Education College, Government Technical Institute, Hakha Midwife Training School, Falam Nursing Training School and Lungpi Agriculture High School. However, only one of these is a university.
So, even today in Chin State, community-run non-profit HEIs are the oldest, most well-established, and most prevalent type of higher education. Most of them are Bible Schools run by the church community. Six public HEIs and about 13 non-profit HEIs currently exist in Chin State. Among them are Chin Christian University, Chin Christian Institute of Theology, Victoria Academy and Chin Initiative for Sustainable Society, to name a few. None of them are registered as HEIs under the MoE. There may be more than thirteen as I could have missed an institution or two in the counting. No official list of these non-profit HEIs exists.
The community provision of higher education in Chin State dates back to 1953, when the first Bible school opened in Falam. The main purpose of non-profit HEIs has always been to make higher education accessible to local youth who cannot afford a university education in bigger cities. Through higher education, these community HEIs also allow Chin students to maintain their ethnic identity, culture and history amidst a Bamar-dominated education system.
As primarily self-funding institutions, these HEIs are faced with financial shortages from time to time. Hence they often struggle with poor physical infrastructure and scarcity of resources. Not having enough qualified teachers, poor resource management, and inadequate tracking of students’ progress are also some challenges that exist within these HEIs. Many of their students undertake Distance Education in public HEIs on the side in order to obtain a formal degree that is recognized by the Myanmar state. This means that non-profit HEIs have to adjust their schedules based on public HEIs.
Another challenge that non-profit HEIs face is the dilemma of which language of instruction to teach in. Language may seem like the last problem faced by local HEIs; however, there are at least 50 Chin dialects spoken in Chin State. So, Chin HEIs are also faced with very diverse classroom in terms of languages. Often, Burmese language, which is everyone’s second or third language, is used in class.
Even so, the advantages of community-run HEIs outweigh these challenges. For one, students consider the quality of education provided by them better than that provided in state-run HEIs. Teaching methods are different and so is the curriculum. For instance, private HEIs use more participatory teaching methods compared to public HEIs, so students learn more effectively.
The root cause of these advantages is that private HEIs have institutional autonomy, unlike public HEIs. My study sought to show why institutional autonomy is important, and how private HEIs can take better advantage of this situation.
The importance of institutional autonomy
So, what exactly is institutional autonomy? There are four internationally recognized aspects of institutional autonomy discussed in the 2018 CHINLONE report: organizational, academic, staffing and financial. To give a better understanding of this concept, I will paraphrase the CHINLONE’s explanation in the next paragraphs.
Organizational autonomy refers to an institution’s capacity to determine its internal organization and decision-making process. This includes the election and dismissal of its leaders and its ability to change its academic structures.
Academic autonomy is an institution’s freedom to manage their academic affairs. These affairs include academic programs and contents, student selection and evaluation criteria, the number of students to be admitted, the curriculum, and teaching methods.
Having institutional autonomy in staffing gives non-profit private HEIs the right to recruit and manage their human resources. For example, a HEI with institutional autonomy could hire an English professor from England to teach, visa issues aside. Or it could ask a local businessman to teach marketing. None of these teacher appointments would require approval from the Ministry of Education.
Financial autonomy gives non-profit HEIs the ability to manage their funds and allocate their budget. However, financial autonomy can push a lot of responsibilities and duties onto HEIs, as they will need to generate their own funds without a stable source of income.
These are the four aspects of institutional autonomy that the private HEIs enjoyed compared to public HEIs, despite not being able to issue formal degrees that are recognized in Myanmar, at least until the coup on 1 February 2021. How their institutional autonomy will be affected by the coup is uncertain.
How can non-profit HEIs sustain their work?
In my research about this topic (which will be published later this year), I argue that non-profit HEIs should take better advantage of their institutional autonomy. This will not only improve their quality but also raise their competitiveness in the eyes of funders, and thereby sustain their work. How?
Since this is not a full research report, I will only focus on one specific area which I think is essential and doable for non-profit HEIs. In particular, I recommend that non-profit HEIs enhance their networks and pursue collaborations with others, whether with local or international institutions.
The aforementioned non-profit HEIs in Chin State already have partnerships and collaborations with both domestic and foreign organizations or HEIs. Through international partnerships, students and staff have opportunities to pursue further studies at partner institutions abroad and participate in study exchange programs. Surprisingly, these non-profit HEIs have more connections with other institutions abroad than between themselves. While international connections are important, domestic connections should not be overlooked as these non-profit HEIs can help each other grow in many ways through collaborations. In fact, some education leaders have mentioned the need for more domestic partnerships during my interviews but none of them had proactive plans to take the initiative. One principal remarked, ‘we (Chin HEIs leaders) always wait for a third party to initiate things like this, this is our weakness’.
In my opinion, networking between similar HEIs within the whole country, especially within Chin State, is crucial for the sustainability of non-profit private HEIs for the following reasons. First, it might give the non-profit sector a better chance of impacting the national higher education policy as a stronger and more consolidated network. In the long run, this could allow non-profit HEIs to gain legal status and accreditation, so that students will no longer have to pursue parallel degrees at public universities. Second, resource sharing might be possible through networking as well, which will increase the quality of education in HEIs. Last but not least, networking will contribute to the organizational development of each institution by allowing them to learn from each other. It is through being with others that we become our better selves..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Description:
"The theme of corruption in education is important because bribery and corruption sabotages
the development of educated, competent, and ethical young people, who are the future workforce, decision makers and leaders of Myanmar. Corruption in education erodes social trust,
damages Myanmar’s reservoir of human capital and contaminates equality, ultimately undermining and destabilizing the well-being of our society.
A contemporary picture suggests that at primary school level, only 81 per cent of children
aged 6–10 years attend school. UNICEF(2019a) reported quoting the 2014 census a calculation that 1 in 5 children are not attending, either because they never entered school or dropped
out. Fees related to education are said to be one of the main causes for many children to
give up on schooling. Another main reason for children to drop out of school is the limited
quality and relevance of the education that is offered. Economic hardships force many young
children to give up education in order to work. UNICEF (2019b) supported the Myanmar
Government to implement the National Education Strategic Plan 2016–2021 (NESP (2016),
and implement the goals of a National Early Childhood Care and Development Policy.
UNICEF (2019a)..."
Source/publisher:
Academia.edu (San Francisco)
Date of publication:
2021-07-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-07-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Education in Burma/Myanmar - general, Education rights: standards and mechanisms, Human rights and education, UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), Children
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
41.92 KB
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Sub-title:
Fostering the untapped potential of Myanmar’s youth
Description:
"In January 2017, State Counsellor Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi gathered 18 young people from across
Myanmar for a Peace Talk in Nay Pyi Taw. These
youth, representing a range of ethnic identities,
shared their fears, hopes, and insights on how to
transform conflict into peace, and how to build
trust between, and within, communities. While the
Peace Talk was considered by some to be symbolic
rather than substantive, the meeting brought the
issue of youth inclusion to the fore and reaffirmed
previous statements delivered by State Counsellor
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi calling for greater
engagement of youth in peace.8
Throughout Myanmar’s history young men and
women have been active at the community level
in activities ranging from youth-led social affairs
groups (Tha-yay Nar-yay ah thin) to supporting
social and community projects such as free funeral
and wedding services, cultural activities, blood
donations, among many others. In the more formal
peacebuilding sphere, youth have supported and
sustained peacebuilding processes but have rarely
featured in formal, influential public decision-
making roles. In the lead up to the partial signing
of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA)
in October 2015, young men and women were
the backbone of Government and Ethnic Armed
Organisation (EAO) coordination structures,
but were never selected as formal negotiators.
Furthermore, key documents guiding formal
peacebuilding efforts in Myanmar — such
as the NCA and the Framework for Political
Dialogue — do not contain provisions related to
youth inclusion. These documents also do not
consider youth as a cross-cutting issue across
thematic discussions. In other words, speeches
and statements articulating the importance
of youth inclusion have yet to be matched by
inclusion strategies and structures that secure the
meaningful engagement of young people in the
future of their country.
While low levels of youth inclusion in public
decision-making persist, there is an opportunity to
capitalise on nascent youth policy commitments
and harness the contributions of youth leaders,
innovators, facilitators, and policy-advocates to
increase the likelihood of reaching sustainable
peace in the country. Global evidence shows that
broadening public participation – including to
young people – in peace increases the prospects
for it lasting.9
Empowering young peacebuilders
has also been shown to create active citizens for
peace, to reduce violence and to increase peaceful
cohabitation.10 With the passing of United Nations
Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250 on
Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) in 2015, there
is also potential for Myanmar to lead globally
and set good practice for sustainably increasing
the involvement of young people at all levels of
decision-making, policy-making and peacebuilding.
Myanmar youth are contributing formally and
informally to a host of peacebuilding initiatives;
leveraging these contributions, often innovative
and catalytic in their approaches, can support the
multiple transitions the country is undergoing.
Bringing the role of young people to the forefront
of Myanmar’s transition also builds on Myanmar’s
history where students and youth movements
have influenced the trajectory of the country.
This Discussion Paper provides a starting point
for understanding the status of youth inclusion
in peacebuilding in Myanmar. In Section 1, this
Discussion Paper assesses the involvement of
youth and inclusion of youth perspectives in peace
at both national and sub-national levels since 2011.
Section 2 analyses the challenges young women
and men face to their substantive involvement in
peacebuilding. Section 3 draws upon national and
international good practice, articulating a strategic
framework for action to overcome obstacles
discussed in Section 2. (For a detailed overview of
the methodology used to inform this Paper, see
Annex 2.)
opportunities and challenges to young men. Other
identity factors often supersede age-related
identity. Thus, when discussing youth in Myanmar,
it is critical to understand other elements of
identity that intersect with age, such as: gender,
ethnicity, religion, class, disability, Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Questioning
(LGBTIQ), migration, nationality, drug use, among
others..."
Source/publisher:
Paung Sie Facility, UKaid, SWEDEN, Australian Aid
Date of publication:
2017-01-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict and peace-building in Burma - theoretical, strategic and general, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Panglong Peace Conference, Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups, Education in Burma/Myanmar - general, Children, Education rights: standards and mechanisms, Children's Rights - studies, Women's rights, Ethnic groups in Burma: general studies and articles
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.86 MB (72 pages)
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Description:
Adopted by the General Conference
at its eleventh session,
Paris, 14 December 1960
Source/publisher:
UNESCO
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Articles 10, 14.2(d) (Burma is party to this convention)
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Articles 28, 29 (Burma is party to this convention)
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Article 5 e (v)
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
Article 26
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Burmese
more
Description:
Article 26
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
Article 26
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Pwo-Karen
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Description:
Article 26
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
S'gaw-Karen
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Description:
Article 26
Source/publisher:
Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Shan
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Description:
"As world attention focused last month on the large-scale public demonstrations in Rangoon and other major urban centres around Burma, the magnitude of domestic frustration over the military?s systematic impoverishment of the civilian population became evident to the international community. This frustration is keenly felt by the people of Dooplaya District in southern Karen State and found expression last month in local anti-regime gatherings. Amongst other abuses, forced labour and extortion in their many guises have been leading causes in the economic collapse and resultant frustration with militarisation in Dooplaya District. A crucial factor making these abuses even more oppressive in Dooplaya and other areas of Karen State as compared with central Burma is the multiplicity of armed groups which compete with each other and with the region?s civilian administration for the spoils of village-level exploitation. Across Dooplaya District the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Army; the regime?s district and township-level civilian administration; the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); and the Karen Peace Force (KPF) all continue to fatten themselves off of the toil of village labour. Amongst other detrimental consequences, this persistent predation has undermined opportunities for educational advancement and the application of such education beyond traditional village livelihoods or subservience within the local system of militarisation..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F8)
Date of publication:
2007-10-16
Date of entry/update:
2009-11-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Non-ILO Reports on forced labour, including forced portering, in Karen (Kayin) State, Education rights: standards and mechanisms, Economic oppression, Extortion, Robbery, Village and urban resistance
Language:
English
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Description:
"In SPDC- and DKBA-controlled Pa?an District villagers face regular, and sometimes daily, demands for labour, money, food and other supplies from local military units. With troop rotation ensuring the constant presence of active troops patrolling these areas, villagers are given little respite from the demands which place a constant drain on their time, incomes and food supplies. In addition to forced labour, extortion and arbitrary taxation, looting by soldiers is rife and families face increased and arbitrary fees for their children?s education. Such continual exploitation undermines villagers? livelihoods and makes family survival unsustainable, leading many villagers to instead seek more sustainable livelihood opportunities in other areas of Burma or neighbouring Thailand. This report focuses on the situation in Dta Greh township of Pa?an District, detailing incidents which occurred between January and July 2008..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F13)
Date of publication:
2008-09-18
Date of entry/update:
2009-11-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Non-ILO Reports on forced labour, including forced portering, in Karen (Kayin) State, Economic oppression, Extortion, Robbery, Education rights: standards and mechanisms
Language:
English
more
Description:
"With largely consolidated control over Dooplaya District in southern Karen State the SPDC and DKBA, as the two dominant (and allied) military forces, operate under a system of coexistence. The local civilian population, in turn, faces exploitative governance on two fronts as both SPDC and DKBA soldiers seek to extract money, labour, food and other supplies from them. Enforcing heavy movement restrictions on top of persistent exploitative demands, local communities are facing deteriorating livelihood opportunities, increasing poverty, and a constriction of educational and health care opportunities. Persistent human rights abuses thus foster the economic pressures fuelling the continuing migration of rural communities in Dooplaya District to refugee camps in Thailand and towards livelihood opportunities at urban centres in Burma and Thailand. This report examines the situation of abuse in Dooplaya District from January to June 2008..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F8)
Date of publication:
2008-07-11
Date of entry/update:
2009-11-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Non-ILO Reports on forced labour, including forced portering, in Karen (Kayin) State, Conflict and health, including violations of humanitarian and human rights standards as threats to health, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Health, right to: standards and mechanisms, Education rights: standards and mechanisms
Language:
English
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