Staffing the primary public schools in rural areas in two areas: the case of Shan state and Bago division (2011-2018)

The university students were against the education system in 1988 and as a result, the military took over the state functions. Under the military regime, the military government was faced with nationwide conflicts and protests. To control these conflicts and increase protection, the government shaped and formed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) which was led by the military high-ranks officers (Moinque Skidmore, 2008, p. 2). However, the protests did not end until 1998 (WOHLK, 2014). The military government (SPDC) closed the universities for about 3 years. After three years, the military government declared a new education system that was focusing on the establishment of Universities at major states and divisions.

In 2010, President Thein Sein recognized that education is needed to reform for the country's development. Therefore, under his administration, he launched the new education policy in March 2011 and also known as 10 points education policy. These are:

* Implement a free, compulsory primary education system.

* Increase the enrolment rate in the basic education sector. The policy intends to the rural and urban areas because the population has increased in the rural areas however the enrolled rate of the students in rural is less than the drop-out rate in there.

* Nurture the new generations as intellectuals and intelligentsia in human resource development.

* Improve the capacities of teachers in both basic and higher education sectors.

* Utilize teaching aids more effectively.

* Upgrade the quality and socio-economic status of educational personnel.

* Provide scholarships, stipends, and awards both locally and internationally and to provide the quality of education.

* Promulgate relevant laws for the participation and contribution of the private sector in education services.

* Collaborate with international and local organizations including the United Nations, and national and international non-governmental organizations. Before 2010, the government ignored the educational donor and educational volunteer organization. The education sector was participated with the educational organizations (local and abroad) to perform the better education level.

* Upgrade educational standards to an international level (Bank, 2015, p. 44)

In February 2012, the Ministry of Education initiated a Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR), with the help of international development partners, aiming to set up a plan to understand the current situation and to improve quality improvement and development in the education sector with strategies (Comprehensice Education Sector Review- CERS). CERS focuses on the following areas: policy, legislation, management, and finance; (2) primary education area; (3) teacher education sector; (4) non-formal education sector; (5) technical vocational education and training (TVET); (6) higher education sector; and (7) information and communication technology (ICT). In December 2012, the Framework for Economic and Social Reforms (FESR) launched to expand “10 points Education Policy”. Then, the FESR made the following commitments to expand the basic education system from 11 to 12 years.

* Place greater emphasis on child-centered teaching methodologies.

* Upgrade teacher training and undertake other curriculum reforms to enhance the quality of basic education.

* Address teacher remuneration and broader issues of education financing.

* Establish a rigorous system for education quality assessment and performance.

* Undertake basic education management reforms, including greater involvement of parents in their child's education.

* Introduce supportive measures to address high drop-out rates and the cost burdens for families (Education, 2017).

Furthermore, the government has been making these plans in 2011 to implement for the Basic Education Sector. They are:

* To provide Primary Compulsory Free Education.

* To upgrade the Quality of Basic Education

* To meet the Demand for Community and Industries' Educated, Skilled Disciplined Workforce.

* To make universities as the main provider of the knowledge-based economic system of the nation.

* To transform the existing universities into internationally recognized universities.

According to these programs and inviting with the abroad organization the education standard developed. The new curriculum has been initiated to be the same international standard. For the compulsory education system, according to Article 152 of the Myanmar Constitution of 1974, the primary education (Grade 1 to Grade 5) is the compulsory education in which every citizen shall have the right to education and shall be given basic education which the State prescribes by law as compulsory (UNESCO-IBE, 2008, p. 103). According to Myanmar's 2008 constitution, the priority of the country has been legislated thereby the education sector has become widely by the international and domestic community. According to section 28 in 2008 Myanmar's Constitution, "the union shall provide a free, compulsory primary education system". Therefore, President Thein Sein started with a free and compulsory education program that had the completed compulsory education for primary education in 2012. Government performed and guided the right to education, the right to conduct scientific research, work with creativity, and the right to develop the arts as the priorities in the education sector.

The ministry of education is the main benefactor of education in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Tint, p. 2). According to the 2008 Myanmar Constitution, Myanmar education administration is divided into 21 sub-divisions including seven states, seven regions, six self-administered zones, and one self-administrative division (Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, 2008). Therefore, the department of basic education has been divided into two regions: Mandalay (for Upper Myanmar) and Yangon (for Lower Myanmar). Since 2011, the ministry of education is implementing short and long-term education development plans to progress a lifelong learning society. The implementation of the education development plan is not only getting about the improvement of the quality of basic education system, higher education system and supporting the diversities of the education, but it has also evidently improved accessibility to the basic and higher education.

The education system of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is implemented by the Ministry of Education consisting of Basic Education and Higher Education. The Myanmar Basic Education System is divided into four parts, Pre-school, Primary Education, Secondary Education, and High Education. The Pre-primary education is started from 3 to 5/6 years of age, also called kindergarten. Primary Education is set by grades 1 to 5 and Secondary Education/ middle school is set by grades 6 to 9. The Upper Secondary School/ High School Education is from grade 10 to grade 11 (World Data on Education, 2010-11). The structure and organization of the education system show in Figure 1 (Source: Ministry of Education, 2007). Primary Education has been compulsory and free education in Myanmar since 2011-2012 Academic-Year (Naing, 2014). After the high school level/ grade 12, the students sit for the matriculation examination to enter the tertiary level. All basic school education is under the management of the Ministry of Education. Before 2015, the central education system had run according to the (5-4-2) system which has five years for primary education, four years for secondary education, and two years for high school education. This education system has been affected by the lack of full implementation of the set education policy goals that have been formulated by the national government to match up with the universal primary education standards.

Figure 1. Structure of the Education System (2007)

MoE announced the new structure of KG+12 and that appeared in 2016: five years of primary education, four years of secondary education, and three years of high school education and developed with a strong focus on original content, improved teaching methodology, and assessment. The new KG class is for five-year-olds and the official school-age starts from the age of six, and it came with a new curriculum. In 1998, the KG was designed as Grade 1. This system did not include free time for and playing for children. Formal Standard syllabus can teach the children how to train the child for the future and that new syllabus rose to the international standard in 2017 (MoE, 2017).

Table 1. The Education System in Myanmar (2011)

The basic school education consists of three sectors: monastic school, public school, and private school. The monastic education school has been present since the 11th century and this is also the traditional education system based on the monks teaching monks who focus on culture and Buddhist's philosophy. These schools have maintained the lack of academic sector. The requirement of skilled teachers in public basic education schools, the monks and the graduated students have supported Basic Education. The monastic education sees the native teachers mostly in rural areas due to the inadequacy of permanent teachers from the government administration.

In the present day, the monastic schools have used the basic education's curriculum and aim not only on the poor families but also to fill the gap in the education system under the Minister of Religious Affairs (MoRA). The monastic education schools are supported by donations and public cooperation. Many monastic schools are still struggling with the absence of basic facilities, teaching and learning materials and inadequate sanitation and hygiene facilities. The teachers in monastic schools do not receive salaries and any kind of facilities from the government; money has been accepted from the donor and monks and their ambition is to fill the education gap between poor and rich families.

Politically, according to the education policy, the public schools or the government schools are established nationwide and children can attend government school. The government provides school uniforms, books, and other teaching aids. Furthermore, schooling has been contributed free for primary public school since 2011. Before 2010, the basic education system had downed and lacked the school infrastructure and teaching aids. In the military administration, the government focused on building universities with educational expenditure. The number of public schools developed nationwide during the transition period. On the other hand, the number of teachers had increased until 2016 when was the last time permission for the daily wages teacher policy. This result was caused by the demanding teacher at the primary schools. Another issue was coming up with the private school's law which was declared by President Thein Sein in December 2011. This was the first time the government allowed and opened the community to have private schools in accordance with the law. Even though this law was a better reforming process to get a qualified education level, most of the transferred have transferred. The fulfillment of the basic education teacher program was gap due to these policy reforms. The private schools follow the national school curriculum (Private scholing returns to Myanmar, 2010).

The Basic Education sector is organized in three departments: Basic Education Council, Basic Education Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbook Committee, and Teacher Education Supervisory Committee and was established in 1973 and supervised by the Deputy Minister (Education Report, 2002, p. 10). The fundamental education law has been reformed since 1973. In 2010, the president launched the new education policies and curriculum, which was associated with Myanmar's democratic transition period. However, the appropriate basic education policy did not reach the teachers and students. The requirement of government investment in the basic education sector, the dropout rate was high even in primary industries, and regular attendance was also high, especially in rural areas. The curriculum was out-of-dated and fewer private schools that were not documented by the Ministry of Education before 2015 were present though this was considered to be illegal. For the government schools/ public schools, students have to pay not only registration fees but also extra donations such as care of school buildings, the charge of books and school uniforms. In these situations, low-income families are not able to afford to take their children to school. This leads to incomplete education for students in middle school and high school who fail to finish high school education.

The Basic Education policy was planned by the president, the Minister of Education and other non-governmental organization from abroad without the involvement of teachers, parents, and students in the country. Therefore, the basic education policy is not reliable for the teachers and students on the ground situation. The curriculum was based on passive-learning and teacher-centric learning systems. Therefore, protests occurred especially in the central part of Myanmar due to the new basic education policy. In the primary education sector, many teachers had no qualifications to teach students because they just received short-term teaching training. The government announced the new policy for the teachers in 2017 that rejected daily wage teachers in the primary school. According to this policy, the number of teachers decreased and that was the gap between the teacher and student ratio in the primary education sector. Generally, the Basic Education sector in Myanmar needs to reform its priorities.

Children living in remote areas face challenges in attending school due to poverty. The enrollment numbers of primary schools have been increasing because of the free and compulsory education that launched in 2011. According to the data from the Myanmar Living Condition Survey, the enrolment in primary schools increased by 6% from 2010 to 2017 (Oxford Business Group). In the same period, the enrolment number of students in rural areas was 8%. Therefore, the enrolment rate of the students in primary school increased under the new policy: free and compulsory education.

In the new curriculum, there was no equilibrium for other ethnic students who live in rural and remote areas with languages and culture difficulties because the primary-aged children are learning the Burmese language as a secondary language. This challenge is also faced by teachers because most of the teachers in Myanmar cannot communicate with other national languages. Teachers from the other ethnic groups need to be trained to become qualified therefore the government needs to come up with a suitable policy supporting the number of qualified teachers in these areas.

The teachers in primary schools have fewer opportunities and more challenges. They are the leader of the students' basic life and focus on learning and teaching for all students. The government makes on education with long-term and short-terms to develop the country's educational system. Teachers are therefore faced with new educational challenges as the curriculum is reformed and inadequate facilities: transportation system, healthcare, classroom management, living costs at the posting regions, language barrier, pupil-teacher-school ratio, and salaries, etc. Teachers in primary school are also faced with inadequate government funding, inadequate physical facilities, teaching facilities, and learning facilities because teachers are trying to implement government agenda-setting.

In Myanmar, according to CEIC data statistics, the percentage of primary-school-age children had 89.576% in 2010 and rapidly increased to 99.545% in 2017 (Global Economic Data). According to data from the 2014 Myanmar population and housing census, the union report, the total population of Myanmar was 51.996 million people in 2010, 52.4 million people in 2016, and increased to 53.708 million people in 2018 (Myanmar, 2018). The population rate is growing each year in Myanmar therefore; the primary student's enrolment rate is also increasing year by year.

Figure 2. Population (Myanmar)

Regionally, the population rate in rural areas is more than the urban areas. According to the World Bank collection of development indicators, the population in rural areas is 69.42% in 2018 thereby the percentage in rural areas is higher than the urban. Furthermore, less development can be seen in rural areas such as transportation systems, electricity, health care, and education. Therefore, teachers who are posting to rural areas may be less interested in teaching.

Next, parents in rural areas are poor and most of them are farmers and some of them have a low level of education. Parents do not support schooling because they need their children for help at farming and other business. For this reason, children are not interested in schooling but the teachers try to attract students to attend school. For rural areas, they have insufficient support from the government. In Myanmar, before 2011, the government built the school construction before 2011 but lacked to supply quality education services in rural areas. Therefore, the education standard dropped compared to the neighboring countries. Qualified teachers are the basic need for primary education in order to implement a qualified education standard. According to the data statistic of MOE- 2014, the numbers of teachers in primary schools increased during the 2011-2018 academic years because of the new education policy on the daily waged teachers where rural schools depend on those teachers (Myanmar, Ministry of Education, 2014).

The new policy, however, rejects the daily waged teacher before the implementation of the primary schools' teachers. The basic education schools however still need these teachers. For the teachers, the government lacks to provide and support education services in rural areas. Most of the teachers do not want to go to rural areas and prefer to teach in urban areas. Therefore, rural school progress has had little impact compared to urban or central areas. Figure 3 and Figure 4 indicate the number of teachers and students of primary schools (rural areas) in Bago Division and Shan State. The number of students' enrollment rate has increased yearly, however the teachers have existed in a stable amount for those regions. Shan State is the largest area of the country where is mostly the mountainous regions and 78% of the population are there. Due to the policy changes in the basic education level, the government rejected the daily-wage teachers to become more qualified teachers around the country, result by, and number of teachers have decreased since this period. On the other hand, the teacher training college can train among 200-400 teachers per year. Compared with the country population, there needs to increase the number of teachers for the primary school levels.

Figure 3. Number of Teachers and Students in Rural Areas (Bago)

Figure 4. Number of Teachers and Students in Rural Areas (Shan)

From the teachers' point of view, qualified teachers want to stay in central areas because they can get great opportunities and a better job than rural areas.

The teachers from rural areas are serving to get the experience for their promotion and, after that, they may not go back to the rural areas. Even though the government invests in urban schools, the rural schools still lack investment from the government organization. For the example of the remote and hill regions, the government organization cannot go and see their real ground situation due to the transportation, communication, and security. Therefore, educational equality does not have government investment for the rural areas thereby schools do not have equal opportunities in every part of the country.

The number of make teachers is more than the female teachers, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, the percentage of primary education female teachers was 82.35 % in 2017. According to the Five National Education Policy, the government is driving for multifaceted development including five powers of strengths which have physical strength, mental strength, wealth strength, social strength and moral strength. Consequently, the education sector has to equip the equal ratio of male teachers and female teachers.

Transportation problems are one of the important parts of the teacher deficiency. In Myanmar, transportation is very bad in remote areas especially in the rainy season.

Myanmar has three seasons: summer season, rainy season, and winter season. Half of the year is the rainy season, June to December. Most of the rural areas are located in hill regions so that the transportation systems cannot work easily in these regions. The schools are distant from the villages and teachers take the time to reach the school and finish the class early. Students have difficulties with these kinds of transportation and they also find it hard to help their parents because of the time they take going to school and going back home. Therefore, transport difficulties often affect teaching and regular schooling.

Another related issue is getting teaching aids and teaching requirements for rural teachers. The teachers from rural areas have less access to support services than urban teachers because the government's allowance cannot reach rural areas. Before 2011, the rural areas did not have enough schools. Mostly, the Eastern part of Shan State has mountain areas that had one primary school for five villages and was difficult for schooling. For the teachers from the urban schools, they do not want to go to these areas and also the teachers from rural areas want to transfer to the central part of the country because of the transportation problems. This is the lack of the teachers in the rural areas and it can cause the reduction of qualified teachers in those areas. The native teachers just remain in the rural areas that just passed the high school education level. Therefore, the transportation issues are directly related to the teachers' incentive. If the government could support the transportation system to the remote and rural areas, the posting teacher's incentive level would increase. Poor transportation may affect the high school dropout rate and the dropout rate may affect the arising number of qualified teachers for the country.

Security can consider the impact of the teachers deficiency in the rural areas where have less security in there. After independence from 1948, Myanmar has been confronting internal conflicts among nations. In the countryside, there are insurgents who keep fighting with the government organization to get their autonomy. Roads and streets have less security with mines, ambush, and kidnapping. For these reasons, teachers do not want to risk teaching in rural areas. Most of the teachers are female teachers; therefore, these women teachers in villages have conflict zones. In the example of Lashio, the northern part of Shan State, being the conflict and armed clashes between Shan and Tatmadaw thereby the women teachers have no assurance for their security. Even the police are afraid of the Shan insurgents. Interview results from the teachers in these areas, 8 out of 10 teachers are always waiting for their transfers due to the lack of law enforcement and unstable armed clashes (Thu, 2019). And some teachers leave out their work without permission from the ministry. For these conditions, if the government gives better protection to the teachers, they can focus on teaching and the new teachers would be attractive and the retention of the primary school teachers.

Most of the teachers come from the central part of the country. Myanmar has 135 nations and its different cultures, religions, and language. Teachers have opposed relocating to the rural areas where the first language is different from the one they are familiar with. Therefore, posting teachers who cannot speak well in other ethnic languages therefore they do not communicate fluently makes the students have a hard time finishing the course. The posting system and the deployment of teachers do not favor rural areas. This led to the introduction of daily wages teachers' primary public schools. Even though they can teach the students in primary schools with their knowledge and teaching methods, their teaching and learning methods are slightly different from the official syllabus. The daily wages teachers are not qualified to teach the students because they just passed the basic education and some are passed the upper primary education.

In the case of the student protest movement in 2014, the students opposed the National Education Law which did not include adding ethnic languages in Bill. Therefore, the students protested and attempted to reform the Bill to include the ethnic minority education. If this reforming function could not include in Bill, the teacher qualification would remain for the education sector. By adding the ethnic language in the curricula, the teaching system can improve for the minority ethnic nations and then it can advance for their region or areas as the qualified teachers. In present, the language barrier is still blockaded for the teachers.

In 2018, the government launched a new policy for the teachers to promote qualified teachers thereby rejecting the daily wages teachers and substituting them with qualified teachers who graduated from the teacher training schools and colleges. In this period, the number of teachers in primary schools decreased and the replacement of the number of qualified teachers from the government to fill the spot took delay. Yearly, 400 qualified teachers are by the teacher training colleges and this number cannot fill the basic education schools. More specifically, if the government does not take any action the country's education will decline.

Traditionally, teachers are one of the respectful people in Myanmar (Buddha, Tayar, Sangar, Parents, and Teachers). Initially, monks teach the subjects in which the culture and mathematics apply partially. Therefore, the teaching system descended from the religious teaching system and it prevailed in the education system. The primary schools are the foundation for the students therefore teachers are an important part of the society. The developing countries like Myanmar have poor income for the teachers. The government school teachers in Myanmar have low income rate other professional actors such as engineers, banking services, and private school teachers. They are teaching based on their hobbies, good will, affections. The government cannot support the teachers' facilities as increasing salary and the result the teachers appeared to volunteer for the education sector.

This result is as good as for the remote areas; however, the teachers' qualifications have an issue for the primary education level. The teachers must have to qualify for their students to become better. According to the data results from the MoE, the number of qualified teachers required and which have been fulfilled from the government and furthermore the policy changed for the daily-wage teachers in primary levels that also were the requirement of the number of teachers in primary schools.

Figure 5. High School Students' Matriculation Examination Passed Results

This figure illustrates the number of the percentage of high school students appearing and passing in the whole country. Even though the number of student entrance for the matriculation examination rate increased by yearly however the percentage of the school passed percentage is not differently changed per yearly. These results have been counted by the qualified teachers still required until 2018.

The daily-wage teachers mainly serve in the rural areas and that affects the ethnic regions. Changing the Basic Education System affected the primary schools in rural areas thereby reducing the number of teachers in these areas.

Teachers are the main actor not only for learning but also for guiding future leaders. Therefore, teachers need the qualification to teach the students in their relevant fields. Myanmar is among the countries with the lowest literacy rates in Asia and therefore the quality of education has been launched since 2011 to improve the economic development by upgrading with new education policy. But then, the new curriculum is confusing for both teachers and students, especially with unqualified teachers. Historically, in 1920, the government launched Yangon University to provide teaching diplomas for high school teachers; as a result, the teacher training college was formed in 1931. However, the government closed the university due to the student riots in 1978 and 1988. For these reasons, the new teachers and pre-service teachers missed the teaching training. In 1999, the socialist government introduced the new teacher training policy and built new education teacher-training colleges and teacher training schools (Zaw, 2008).

The teacher's promotion system has these steps, according to the long-term plan; the teacher who started the education training school became the primary assistant teacher (PATs). If they promote up to the junior assistant teachers (JATs), they can serve and teach in middle school. The next step promotes the senior assistant teachers (SATs) who become the high school teacher. This policy has been included in long-term education development plans (2001-2031).

In 2015, the Teacher Training School was reformed with the new policy that the University of Yangon and the University of Mandalay provide a five-year degree (B.Ed.) Bachelor of Education degree after that teacher can serve in secondary school. The Education Colleges provide diploma-level (two-year courses) and teachers can serve in the primary and middle schools. After two years, they can be promoted to middle school teachers. The department of teacher education and training (DTET) is responsible for the Education Colleges and managing the practicing schools. The department of basic education (DBE) is responsible for all government schools and also responsible for coordinating school-based bloc training placements (UNESCO STEM, 2016). The Education Colleges give clear objectives for the teacher training with six objectives. There are:

1. To train and produce full-fledged teachers to carry out their duties and responsibilities in the construction of the new Education system, whom the parents of their pupils and the working people in their community can look up to trust and respect;

2. To train and produce teachers who can behave and conduct they well to become good teachers in conformity with the Myanmar way of life;

3. To train and produce competent teachers who are well versed in the subjects they are to teach;

4. To train and produce teachers who possess adequate knowledge of educational principles and teaching techniques which will enable them not only to teach effectively but also to promote the wholesome relationship between the pupils and their homes, their schools and community;

5. To train and produce teachers who can assume leadership possessing thorough knowledge and understanding of the principles of the all-round harmonious development of human personality in education; and,

6. To train teachers to encourage research work that would contribute to widening the horizon of the knowledge of teachers to improve their intellectual and professional levels (DTET, 2015).

Therefore, pre-service teachers are also facing a new method (CCA). The teaching trainers, on the other hand, are pushed to accomplish their goals. In the new curriculum, the B.Ed. level teachers are more suitable for the qualified teachers because they attended five years in the Teacher Training University whereas, for the Diploma level teachers, they undertake a two-year. Furthermore, according to the education promotion policy, these diploma level teachers have to serve in the primary and middle schools.

According to the UNESCO STEM- report, there is no teacher policy in Myanmar. The policy is relying on the policy guideline of the 30-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan which aim to create and education system for modernization and development for all (Education, EFA: Mid-Decade Assessment Report, 2007, p. 147) Furthermore, the National Education Law (2014) is the main policy directive for the teachers. These directives include updating the teaching-learning processes and the teacher education system, teacher training program and promoting teachers education. In Myanmar, the teaching training guidelines and practices do match up.

There are three types of teacher training programs to become the primary teachers. The primary school teachers training college is two years for the permanent teachers. The daily-wage teachers have to attend six months for the teacher training program and become the permanent teacher as well. Finally, PPTT teachers have to attend six months and they become the primary teachers. Three teacher training program support to become the pre-service qualified teachers: Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs), Teacher Training Schools (TTSs) and Education Colleges (ECs) (2013, p. 39). The quality of teachers depends not only on the length of the program but also the quality of the program. The new education policy has six months for PPTT teachers with the new education policy in 2018 and that gives the opportunity for the graduated students who finished any kind of University. Furthermore, the teacher training programs were trained by the NGOs, and other government linked organizations from abroad (Japan, Finland, and Austria).

Myanmar education learning and teaching system launched the rote learning system thereby impacting the quality of critical thinking. It was restricting the quality of education for teachers and students because in the past decades, the students were prohibited by asking questions to the teachers. The new teacher training program based on the critical thinking and child-center approach method. The teachers were started and they were trained by new teaching methods such as Child-Centered Approaches, critical thinking, painting, and others. This teacher training program has been initiated for the qualified teachers however teachers have faced difficulties to fix with these new methods. By using these teachers training methods, the teachers have approached the quality of education.

3. Research Finding

To answer the research question, these results were received from the interviews with local teaches in Bago Division and Shan State. The research question is “what measures can be taken by the government to deal with the deficiency of teachers in Shan State and Bago Division?” Interviewing results have been related to teachers' deficiency problems and the ground situation in both regions. Teachers have faced many difficulties due to the lack of government supplications and incomplete policies of Basic Education. The interview results will highlight the needs of the teachers in reference to their professional life and the facilities in rural areas.

The main objective of the interview was aimed at providing research findings with an in-depth understanding of the teachers' deficiency and their perceptions and how the teachers' deficiency in the Basic Education Sector will be addressed in future. The interview demonstrated the struggles in the Basic Education Sector and how learning has been carried out under the basic education policy through governmental planning.

The results obtained would meet the result goal through the analysis of the interview results. The interviews helped in understanding the real situation and the documented basic education quantitative and qualitative data. The interviews were carried out in a span of two weeks whereby local teachers, student union's leaders, journalist, principles, and educational experts were interviewed.

Each interview took an average of 20 minutes and teachers were free to speak their minds; the interviews are connected in the Burmese Language (the major language of Myanmar) and recorded by note and audio file. The conversations were later translated into English. During the interview sessions, both the researcher and the respondents had the opportunity to ask for further information in order to understand the questionnaire and also receive recommendations and suggestions on the deficiency of teachers from the respondents.

A similar questionnaire was administered to all the respondents in the different regions (Shan and Bago).

Question One: Why do you think there is an inadequacy in the number of teachers in the region and what are the main challenges that teachers face? This question aimed to find out how the rural teachers were managing the primary classrooms with insufficient facilities and skills. It also helps to understand the kind of challenges experiences such as security, transportation, salary, health insurance, housing, and so on. Furthermore, question one was to get real information about the teachers' lifestyle, their family, language barrier, culture, and so on.

Question Two: What de-motivates people from joining the teaching profession in primary school? (Why don't graduating students not want to join the teaching profession?). This question intended to understand why graduating students did not want to apply for teaching positions in public schools. For example, the teacher lacks security while serving in the hilly regions and are therefore not interested in working in these areas. It also helps understanding how the government plans on the teacher policy. Before 2010, the teachers' salary could not support their livelihood therefore teachers have been working as a form of hobby.

Question Three: What can be done to retain teachers in public schools?” This question was to know the supplies and demand for the education and teacher's facilities have to be balanced on teaching progress. The more they have a good salary or facility, the more they can work and stay at work. If the central government fails to support teachers, the regional government thus needs to support and guarantee security for teachers. This would help in balancing the deficiency in rural areas because most of the rural areas have insurgents who need to make peace with the regional leader.

Question Four: “In your own opinion, do you think the teachers training program is efficient and effective in the contemporary time and if not (no), what do you think can be done?” This question was to think of the teacher training schools, colleges and programs and how it started these colleges and how these programs have been preferred for the skilled teachers to serve for the Basic Education sector. Rural areas always require teachers so that was a gap between government policy and local government advice. For teachers, they should also be made aware of the government's plans and suitable policies for these areas based on the basic education long term development plan and identify the best solution for these areas.

Question Five: What do you think can be done in order to improve the deficiency of teachers in the region? “This question was to identify based on the teachers' perspective the number of teachers required in relation to the teacher training college and basic education policy.

Question Six: According to your own opinion, what is the number of teachers for each primary school and what do you think about the teacher to student ratio in your school and is it manageable?” In other schools? This question has been asked to know the students and teachers ratio in those areas compared with other regions. This question was asked to find out the teacher and student ratio that could fill the gap created in the regions based on the differences of the rural and urban conditions. An examination of the number of teachers supported by the government in the rural areas based on the reformed policy and the suggestions of teachers were also taken into consideration.

Question seven: What/ which kind of implementation process has been done on the ground to address the deficiency of teachers in primary school and what policy has the government implemented according to your opinion? This question was to get the general understanding of the policy implementation processes from the perspective of teachers. And this question intended to analyze the implementation processes and finding the government and local government supporting and implementation of the teachers' deficiency in both regions.

Question One: Why do you think there is an inadequacy in the number of teachers in the region and what are the main challenges that teachers face?

For question one, two teachers from Mong Hsat (Shan State) responded they did not have any teaching degree but they had already passed the basic education examination in 2012 and they were trying to become permanent teachers in their respective schools. Since they are native speakers, they want to serve in their region. Since they are serving as daily-wage teachers this becomes a challenge because they have no guarantee of being absorbed as permanent teachers.

Two teachers from the next school (Shan State) claimed that the education policy shows the role of teachers as the highest in the organization but they lack basic facilities and respect on the ground. According to the last teacher, she claimed that two more teachers were needed in her school so that there can be progress in teaching and training processes.

In the village, the village elder supports the teachers' facilities like the school, house, and candles which are used as a source of light among other things, however, teacher requirements can only be addressed and supported by the government since it is the responsibility of the government to allocate teachers in the school because village elder is not in a position to do so.

According to the respondents from Shan State, the Myanmar education system changes yearly thereby they do not understand the government's policy due to frequent changes. The basic education policy needs to be clarified for the main actor (teachers). If they do not understand the teaching and training methods, the students might face a bad foundation and this might affect them. They feel the situation needs more trained teachers in their school. Despite the difficulties they face, the teachers keep working with love and making teaching a hobby.

However, most of the teachers from Bago Division responded that they are fixing this situation. If the government allocates more teachers for the primary schools, the teaching process will improve. Students and teachers from some villages face difficulties going to school, especially in the rainy season since the flooding-issue is always there. Therefore, teachers get demoralized due to the challenges they face especially during the rainy season because they are forced to use boats. Students also face similar problems in the surrounding villages and as a result they do not see the need of going to school.

Two teachers in the same school responded that the main challenge is the issue of transportation because the schools are a little far from their home and they are forced to use bicycles and bullock carriage every day.

One teacher in the next school stated that the new basic education curriculum was a big change due to unfamiliarity that came with the introduction of the new curriculum. This has therefore resulted in the delayed teaching processes and has affected the completion of the academic year. The new curriculum also causes stress to students because they are pressurized and pushed during the learning process.

According to the next two teachers, the current education reform process should prioritize the opportunities given to teachers because the new curriculum is focusing more on the students and therefore, teachers are qualified enough to teach them. Their school therefore needs more teachers because it only has five teachers who take four classes and this means they cannot manage and concentrate in the classes.

Question Two: What de-motivates people from joining the teaching profession in primary school? (Why don't graduating students not want to join the teaching profession?).

The teachers from Bago responded that the professional teachers need help at the primary school level in the country because they have a good sense of teaching and they were trained by the international community. They also have the opportunity to work at schools at the primary level. However, they compared with the private schools' salary and facilities. For example, our school has only four teachers: two teachers are daily wage teachers from this village, and I and another teacher who are permanent teachers who went through the teachers training college. Yangon Salary is the main attraction of teachers. Another point is the posting region. Even though the students want to become teachers, they do not want to go to remote regions because of the above-mentioned reasons. Therefore, these attractions will not be enough to fulfill the number of teachers in these areas.

For salary, they answered that for one person the salary is not bad but compared with others, their salary has no convenience; when the teacher gets a basic salary of about 180,000 Kyats (75$), the Bank's basic salary is 300000 Kyats (200$). For this reason, they cannot help their family, especially if they have a child or children they cannot support them with the teachers' salary because other needs need to be catered for.

Teachers from both regions suggested that if the basic salary improved nearly 450,000 Kyats (300$), it would really assist them. This is, therefore, the reason why graduating students do not want to join the teaching profession and as a result, decide to join another profession.

Question Three: What can be done to retain teachers in public schools?”

Shan teachers explained that if the government needs to fix the Basic Education System, they need to clearly understand the ground-level, therefore. The teachers are not familiar with the education policy for the teachers and how it is suitable for them. The central government announced and launched the policy as well as the local government also announced many policies that they wanted to change in the education system. Therefore, the education policy scope is wide and it is difficult for the teachers to understand.

With changes made in the education budget, the educational expenditure in different local regions remains to be different. For example, the education expenditure for both urban and rural areas shared the same budget and this is, therefore, the main distinction among the school teachers. In the new curriculum, the KG+12 system was launched thereby the rural teachers have faced management issues in class due to the lack of enough qualified teachers. 2019-2020 Academic Year, started with the new education system which was introduced to the Grade-6 students who were half-way through the old basic program. Two teachers reported that the new system was good for the future education level but one teacher takes 58 candidates in each class. However, if the teacher-student ratio is balanced out the academic courses will finish successfully.

Bago teachers talked about the deficiency of teachers in their schools. The KG+12 system is good but only if conducted systematically by the teachers, however, the number of teachers still needs to be increased at the primary school level. They are however not aware of the number of teachers who have attended the teaching colleges. One of the teachers who graduated from the B.Ed. College said that the college entrance allows between 200 and 400 per year. The lack of teachers in school makes it difficult for teaching and the new curriculum is also unfamiliar with the old-service teachers. The new system has therefore affected the number of qualified teachers (approaching the Child-Centered Approach), especially in the KG and primary teachers. Primary teachers who served two years are afterward promoted to middle school level teachers. In this case, the promotion can cause a reduction in primary teachers.

Question Four: “In your own opinion, do you think the teachers training program is efficient and effective in the contemporary time and if not (no), what do you think can be done?”

Related to the teacher training program, teachers in Shan State responded that the teachers training a short time program could improve the ability of the teaching methods. The two native teachers who went through the middle school level answered that they had been daily-wage teachers since 2001-2002 Academic Year due to the lack of the teachers in their village. The teacher training program from abroad (UWS- United World Schools) which was taught since 2010 enabled them to train and develop their teaching skills. After that, they became part of this organization and are able to stay near their village/home. The local government permitted and as a result, she can become a permanent teacher of the school after finishing the government teacher training program (two months in the summer holiday).

The teachers from Bago responded that the teacher training program is good but they never went through this kind of organization because they were all from the teacher training colleges and PPTTs. Before 2010, teachers were needed in each education level and this is the case to date with Basic Education. This transition period is important for the government due to the changes in education policies, teaching methods, and many changes. All five teachers agreed with the new education system and methods however, they pointed out the main issue to be a lack of facilities and qualified teachers in primary schools.