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Myanmar rising
As political and economic changes resurrect higher education in the former Burma , Australia and other nations have their eyes on the new market .
By Christopher Ziguras
Long ago , so the story goes , young people in Singapore would travel to Rangoon ( now Yangon ) to study in one of the wealthiest and most advanced cities in South-east Asia . Visiting the Myanmar city today , after 50 years of military rule , the only hints of that past are the cluster of impressive but crumbling British colonial-era buildings encircling the once-thriving port and the lavish temples that boast of earlier Burmese empires .
The rate of change since the military regime agreed to a process of democratisation has been phenomenal , and governments and education providers from around the world are rushing in . There is intense jockeying for position in Yangon between the US , China , the European Union , Japan , Australia , and Myanmar ’ s ASEAN neighbours , who are motivated to varying degrees by a range of objectives : to shore up democratisation ; to promote sustainable development ; and to gain early access to lucrative commercial opportunities .
Rebuilding the country ’ s education system is a priority for the Myanmar authorities and foreign governments alike , so what can education providers in Australia and other countries do to help ?
Those troublesome institutions The military regime was highly adept at social control but notoriously disinterested in social welfare . Schooling was primarily a means to promote loyalty to the nation and the government , rather than to impart useful knowledge and skills . Higher education fared much worse . Because university students had a habit of protesting against
Bagan Myanmar
the military regime , the country ’ s universities were shut down entirely in 1988 . Students were told to stay home and teaching staff were put on extended research leave . It marked a period of severe repression of all intellectuals , during which very many were imprisoned or forced to flee .
After many years , universities were gradually reopened , but only after they had been split into 63 different institutions , most with multiple campuses spread across the country . This fragmentation ensured that the number of young people on any one campus was not large enough to overwhelm security forces , but it now makes rebuilding functioning institutions all the more difficult . Most of Myanmar ’ s universities and colleges are in a sorry state . Campus buildings are being repaired but there are few computers and IT infrastructure is almost non-existent . Students complete their secondary education around the age of 16 and are unprepared for advanced study .
One legacy of British colonial rule that will prove fortunate as the country opens up is that English has remained a feature of higher education . Whilst Burmese is normally the oral language of teaching and classroom discussion , handouts and assessment are normally conducted in English . In practice , many students struggle with English comprehension , listening and speaking , and what is assessed is students ’ ability to reproduce memorised passages in exam conditions . Given this continued importance of English , demand for quality English language teaching will probably grow very quickly now that the country is opening up .
Outbound students Given this parlous state of tertiary education , resulting from the military ’ s policies of deliberate neglect and destabilisation , it will take local institutions decades to rebuild . In the meantime , those students who can afford to study abroad will do so in ever-larger numbers .
This outward mobility is not a new phenomenon . For decades ,
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