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

Question Five: What do you think can be done in order to improve the deficiency of teachers in the region?

In Shan State, teachers responded to this question with their regional geography and their insurance. Teacher shortage happens every year due to a lack of security and language barriers for them. Most of the teachers come from the central part of the country and they transfer to their home-town and they never come back. The teacher shortage is not too much and it is about 0.6%. The main reason is that they don't want to go back to the rural and remote areas. The government supports the school building and teaching uniform and aids, though the main actors are the teachers. Teaching the subjects effectively is affected due to the lack of teachers which is the main issue for schools. According to them, if the government allows the teachers' college entrance, these issues will end in the next ten years.

Bago teachers responded that teachers are the basic foundation of the education system. The new education system is heading to the child-centered approach in which it holds good and bad results for Myanmar. Students in Myanmar were used to a rote learning system, therefore, they are performing the critical thinking system in order to complete the new system, the teachers have to be qualified and qualified teachers have to be enough in the education level. Teachers are pressurized in teaching and therefore try really hard to complete the academic course under the new curriculum. They understand the new system is good for education if they use a mixed approach (Children Centered Approach and Teacher-Centered Approach) instead of the one-way approach, the teacher's tension will reduce and it can help to supplement the number of teachers from the government.

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?”

Shan teachers: two teachers answered 1:20 is suitable and this ratio can be managed at each class. Even though this ratio is good for schools, 1:40 is suitable for the country. Others said that 1:30 is fine with the class. In Shan State, most of the schools have managed 1:60 and this has been a struggle for the teachers and this affects the country's education level.

Bago teachers responded 1:20 is the best ratio for their classes however the lack of teachers in the country is bad to balance it out. They also answered that the number of teachers posting is not equal in every primary school, for instance, some rural schools do not have enough teachers for each class but other urban schools have more teachers at the primary school level.

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?

Teachers from Shan State responded if the government gave life insurance for the teachers that would be attractive for the teachers' improvement in primary education. Another view is to reduce and give the teacher entrance examination marks. Nowadays, the B.Ed. entrance mark is high. Even the graduating students who want to become a teacher are restricted by this high mark. In the ground situation, the number of teachers in urban and rural areas is not equal. For example, there are more specific numbers of teachers in urban areas and the rural areas lack primary schools. If the government takes action on the posting, the number of teachers will fill in the classes. For the teachers in the remote areas, they have the extra supporting money of about 78000Kyats (52$) (remittance costs). But this policy is not equal around the country. They don't know the government's indicator for the remote areas is not equal for all remote areas because their schools are also the remote areas but they get extra money for their teaching. If the government makes policy for all remote areas to get the support money equality, they will be satisfied with the work. The government built the school building and enhanced the summer teacher training program. Summer programs intend for the PPPTs teachers to become permanent teachers for the primary school level. Students who graduated with any specialization subjects, they can be teachers as the higher education level teachers. If the government makes a strong policy such as funding the travel costs for the rural teachers who have to go to the remote areas or reducing travel costs for the teachers, accommodation on living the posting areas, security support on the conflict areas, this will implement the teacher deficiency in the country. If they make the policy, nobody will go to these areas.

Teachers from Bago responded that the government planned for the education plans such as paying money for the evaluation of the matriculation results in a summer holiday and the high school teachers have welfare during this period. Therefore, the teachers received not only the original salary but also extra allowances. The real image of the teaching method should be promoted in the primary education level that would be an increase in the teacher's interest. According to the teacher promotion system, the primary school level teachers will become middle school level teachers after serving for two years; therefore, the primary school teachers need every year. If the government recalls the daily-wage teachers as the last years, this might address teachers' deficiency. And if the government gives life insurance and security, this also would be implemented for the lack of teachers in the rural areas. Totally, education finance was increased and that would have affected the teachers' salary that would be an incentive for new teachers. On the other hand, these issues will pass automatically.

Table 2

The two regions have similar issues of deficiency of teachers in each primary public school and salary. They do not have equal local allowance money in the rural remote areas because the measurement indicator for the remote area has no analytical first-hand experience. According to the teachers' views on the posting areas, they associated this with discrimination because of the unequal rural allowance. Delivery/ sharing of policy information is weak in the Shan State therefore the teachers are unaware of what the MoE has planned for the teachers and has enhanced the teachers program. If the rural teachers do not know the government policy, they cannot introduce new native teachers. Therefore, the incentive for the new teachers is not attractive for rural areas.

Over 70 % of the population is located in rural areas in both regions, therefore, knowledge education sharing and transparent policy at the local level is not attractive for the new teachers in the region. The interview results also demonstrate that the two regions face similar challenges like: insecurity, unequal local allowance salary, transportation system difficulties and the unbalanced teacher ratio between the rural and urban schools. If the government is made aware of the real ground situation and the struggles experienced, it would try to resolve the issues and also deal with the teachers' incentive and as a result, this would attract a high number of teachers and retain them thus dealing with the shortage of teachers.

Myanmar's Government is undergoing the national education reform process. A Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR) has been introducing the new policy and planning, and a National Education Sector Plan (NESP) is being developed in order to define strategic directions in the reform and provide guidance in implementation.

The policy cycle is composed of different stages like agenda setting, policy formulation, legitimation, implementation, evaluation, and policy maintenance/termination but for this case is focused more on the first three stages that are agenda setting, policy formulation, and policy implementation.

It advances to the ratification stage and feedback be in the form of draft legislation or regulations. It therefore identifies subsequent public and private policy actors to negotiate for a more specific plan of action.

Myanmar Education policy is centralized at the level of the Ministry of Education in Yangon. It includes Basic Education I, II, III, Education Planning and Training, Higher Education, Myanmar Board of Examinations, Myanmar Education Research Bureau, and Myanmar Language Commission.

MoE planned to provide a better education for the country by introducing the long-term national strategic plan (2016-2021) that accounts for five years. As mentioned above in chapter two, the government planned the thirty years long-term and short-term plans to improve the education quality, individual opportunities for students and teachers. The Myanmar national education strategic plan, article two, the teachers play the main role in the education reform plan that is deeply illustrated in the national and international form. For example, basic education level teachers are the key to quality education and connect with both the students and parents.

In 2015, the new basic education policy appeared for teachers to participate in drawing on the basic education plan (Nation Education Strategic Plan 2016-2021). For these reasons, teachers can understand the government's plans on education and they can also give their ideas.

According to the National Education Law of Myanmar, it legislates that all teachers need to be qualified means that a teacher as an educator who has qualifications for serving at a specified level of education (Myanamar National Education Law). Under the law, the Ministry and related ministries are responsible for upgrading teachers' quality. The 30 -Year Long -Term Education Development Plan (2001-2031) aimed to uplift national education through a series of reform programmes, including the teacher education system. Therefore, based on this plan, the government has launched the Myanmar Teacher Competency Standards Framework (TCSF) in 2015-2016 academic-year to uplift the teachers education system. The Myanmar Teacher Competency Standards Framework (TCSF) has been developed by a group of national professional education experts and UNESCO education specialists over a period of eight months in 2015-2016 (Aye Aye Myint, 2016, p. 17).

Basic education policy is split between two departmental offices under the Ministry of Education (MOE), Mandalay (for upper Myanmar) and Yangon (for lower Myanmar). A third office is in charge of Yangon City schools. These three departmental offices and the Department of Education Planning and Training administer and manage basic education in accordance with the directives of the Basic Education Council, which includes the Basic Education Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbook Committee and the Teacher Education Supervisory Committee. The Ministry of Progress for Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs (MPBND) has a separate budget for providing education in specific border regions in education, health, agriculture, livestock, transport and communication, and social affairs.

The education sector was restricted to involve the abroad educational organizations such as UNESCO and UNICEF before 2010. However, the government lacked to promote the quality of teaching profession and quality of new teaching methods because it used the traditional teaching and learning methods (TCA).

For now, after 2010, the government has established an agreement between MOE and abroad educational organizations such as UNICEF, UWS, etc. The government therefore benefits due to the teachers training program that provides trained teachers and also volunteer trainers from abroad. UNESCO through the Australian aid funded Strengthening Teacher Education in Myanmar (STEM) project, provided technical assistance in developing the framework. The government welcomed the abroad organization to initiative of qualified teachers.

According to the National Education Policy the central government has already implemented free, compulsory, basic education; increased the enrolment rate in the basic education sector especially in the rural areas (Bago and Shan) and collaborated with international and local organizations including the UN, INGOs and NGOs to promote quality education. However, it yet to, improve teacher capacity; effectively utilize teaching aids; upgrade quality and the socio-economic status of education personnel and also to upgrade the standard of education to an international level.

Implementing large-scale reforms is challenging and retaining teacher educators' enthusiasm needs enhanced support from projects like STEM. Comprehensive teacher policy needs to be developed, while the management of Education Colleges needs strengthening and this is where UNESCO and the Ministry is working together to improve the standard.

Dr. Aung Aung Min, Deputy Director-General, Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education announced the teachers training colleges have been promoted to the teachers training university thereby enhancing four years teacher training program instead of two years program in December 2018 (Nandar Win, 2019). This program started in 2018 and therefore, the government allowed the PPTT teachers to fill the gap of new policy changes. According to the data results from the MoE, the basic education school was totally about 47,000, the number of teachers was 42,000, and the number of students (male and female) was 9,500,000. In 2018, the government can enhance over 6,000 of the basic education level schools, and for the teachers training college was 25 and graduated 12,000 primary teachers per yearly. The government noticed the number of teachers needed across the country therefore the number of entrance teachers (PPTT teachers) has been allowed about 7,000 yearly since 2018 (MRTV, The Government Assigned Daily-paid Teaching Assistants and Language Teachers, 2019).

The government performed to produce primary and junior teachers and trained by the teacher educators from Yangon University of Education (YUOE), Sagaing University of Education (SUOE), the University for the Development of National Races (UDNR).

The main objective for the development of this framework is to establish an agreed set of teacher competency standards to support improvement in the quality of teachers and teaching in Myanmar.

Increase physical access: Increase in the number of schools increases the level of educational attainment. This encourages more schools to be constructed in regions with low school density. This can also promote school enrollment especially in cases where the students don't have to go very far.

Budget and Financial Allocation: The education budget should be increased in order to accommodate rural areas based on the actual cost of keeping a child in school.

Teachers Compensation: Teachers allowances and salaries especially for those in the rural areas should be increased or harmonized to cater for the needs of the teachers and also motivate them thereby increasing their performance.

Budget Allocation on Salary: The government should allow the budget on the education sector and also should invest on the teacher training course cooperation with local organizations and abroad organizations to become the qualified teachers around the country. Government should consider the salary payment of the primary government teachers who serve in the rural and border areas and who need to balance the local currency for their livelihood.

Admin and Management: Based on the interview, the MoE should share the clear policy to understand to the ground level. Consequently, teachers' incentive would be prompted and understand what the government does. The government should open and announce the legal information (Today is the Information Technology World therefore citizens should know information to know in time) that should share to the public sector. As a result, the education policy will clear and can reduce the decentralization processes.

Enhancing Teachers Training Program: MoE should open more teaching training courses to retrain the teachers who do not have any formal qualification in the teaching field, in line with the updated curriculum. MoE should research projects to retain the teachers and to support the teachers' facilities by understanding the ground situation of the teachers. When making the new policy of qualified teachers on education, the policy should be supported to the new policy and should not be lacked on the previous policy. E.g. Rejection the daily-wage teachers. Based on the new teacher training policy, therefore, the government should boost cooperation processes with abroad teaching training programs such as UNESCO and should more comfortable to the abroad teacher training organizations and donors.

Guarantee: The government should make a strong security policy to safe the rural, remote, and border teachers. For the life-long guarantee, the government should promote on superannuation and furthermore, should manage low-cost housing for the retired teachers.

Quality of Education: The policy should perform the quality of teachers. They are important person to improve student learning achievements for the reason that the students become the qualified teachers as well.

Conclusion

Issues that were explored include, low salaries, inequality in wages, salaries and living standard, variations in student to teacher ratio, inadequate facilities (transfer system, transpiration and communication, security and healthcare insurances), are a significant challenge in the public primary schools.

The number of students' enrollment rate increase ever year in Bago Division and Shan State due to the population whereby the population rate in rural areas is more than the urban areas. Despite this, less development can be seen in rural areas in terms of transportation systems, electricity, health care, and education and this affects the posting of teachers who are sent to rural areas because they become less interested in teaching. Based on the new teacher training policy, therefore, the government should boost cooperation processes with abroad teaching training programs such as UNESCO and should more comfortable to the abroad teacher training organizations and donors.

The government should find out the real situation on the ground before coming up with changes including with good relationship between central and local levels, engaging with teachers and parents in rural areas, supplying more basic education equipment in order to promote the quantity of education. Also, the government should award equal allowances for all rural area teachers in order to retain them in their profession and in the different posting regions and therefore, they will be happy to serve in these areas. And if the government gives life insurance and security, this also would be implemented for the lack of teachers in the rural areas. Totally, education finance was increased and that would have affected the teachers' salary that would be an incentive for new teachers. On the other hand, these issues will pass automatically.

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