[lg policy] Myanmar: The future of mother-tongue education

Tue Feb 9 16:00:35 UTC 2016

 The future of mother-tongue education
By Marie Lall and Ashley South   |   Tuesday, 09 February 2016

*As we approach the era of democracy, the citizens of Myanmar are looking
to the new government to resolve many of the issues that the previous
administration either left unfinished, or did not tackle at all. The fact
that the National League for Democracy won a majority (or at least
plurality) across all ethnic states in Myanmar, displacing
<http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/17632-ethnic-parties-fall-short-of-expectations.html>
the ethnic political parties at national and state level, means that the
NLD now has a particular responsibility to represent the needs
<http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/yangon/18092-nld-yet-to-engage-with-ethnic-parties.html>
and desires of the ethnic minorities as well as those of the majority Bamar
community.*

*[image: Photo: Kaung Htet / The Myanmar Times]Photo: Kaung Htet / The
Myanmar Times*

One issue that remains largely unresolved is the use of ethnic languages in
education
<http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/17707-ethnic-language-struggles-near-china-border.html>,
especially in areas with large numbers of ethnic-language speakers.
Myanmar’s history of enforced Burmanisation since the era of Ne Win, when
all schools were nationalised and Bamar saga became the only language
allowed in schools, resulted in widespread resistance on the part of many
ethnic groups.

Several of the larger ethnic armed groups developed their own schools and
education departments, and children in ethnic armed group-controlled areas
often had access to schooling in their mother tongue through locally owned
and delivered education systems. However, for many decades ethnic
nationality children in government-controlled areas had very little access
to education in their mother tongue, other than informally through civil
society networks, such as those connected to Christian churches. Since the
mid-1990s, however, ceasefires in some ethnic areas, including Mon State,
allowed for some “mixed” schools to flourish, offering a combination of
government and ethnic armed group curricula. Still, these schools did not
reach all ethnic children in conflict-affected areas.

It might have been hoped that the peace process engendered under the last
government would have started to address issues of ethnic language and
education. However, they have thus far been largely absent from peace
negotiations, as both the government and armed groups have had other
priorities. Nevertheless, during this period the government did start an
education review and reform process that amongst other things began to
address the issue of who was being taught what languages in the classroom.

The resulting National Education Law recognises that early childhood
education is more effective if provided in the mother tongue. This is in
line with international research and best practice, which indicates
strongly that children learn best and achieve most when taught in their
mother tongue, especially in the early years of schooling. There seems to
be increasing commitment on the part of a range of stakeholders to give
ethnic nationality children some form of instruction in their ethnic
language. For example, an ongoing UNICEF project has been producing ethnic
language readers for government schools, in partnership with local
stakeholders.

However, what the education reforms have not yet addressed is the
widespread demand by ethnic parents for primary schooling with the
appropriate ethnic language as a medium of instruction – something which is
internationally recognised as good practice, and quite different from
teaching the ethnic language in school as a second language. So while
reforms have opened some space for mother-tongue education in government
schools, they do not go nearly far enough to meet the demands of ethnic
stakeholders – for schooling to take place in ethnic languages.

Another, related issue is the future status of the education departments
within the ethnic armed groups. In many ethnic states, such as Mon, local
ethnic armed group education actors are delivering the government
curriculum, with some additional content, taught in the mother tongue.
Chapter 6 of the nationwide ceasefire agreement recognises the roles of
signatories in providing education and other services in areas under their
authority. But as the peace process moves ahead, the role these
organisations play in service delivery for the ethnic communities in
conflict-affected areas is bound to change.

The fact that there are well-developed education systems and school
networks that offer the government curriculum in ethnic languages is
actually of great advantage. The new law also commits the government to
providing education to all children across the union. Therefore, the
government has the choice either to build many new schools in remote areas
and staff them with government teachers (of whom there are not enough), or
to start a collaborative process with ethnic schools that are already there.

Building new government schools in conflict-affected areas could easily
exacerbate tensions and mistrust with ethnic communities beginning to
emerge from decades of conflict. The solution to the government’s conundrum
– of providing education in mother tongue to ethnic communities in remote
areas – lies in a form of convergence between the state system and
non-state ethnic schools. This could result in a triple-win outcome for
ethnic stakeholders, communities and the Ministry of Education.

Of course, this will require some form of negotiated agreement on
accreditation of teachers and schools, and is more complicated to develop
with systems that do not use the government curriculum, such as the Karen
National Union schools. However, a precedent of government-“aided” school
programs already exists for schools set up by the community. A similar
formula can be developed for ethnic armed groups’ non-state schools that
will allow the government to offer mother tongue-based education and reach
remote communities, while also allowing ethnic stakeholders to continue
delivering locally owned education.

The development of such a policy should be an essential part of political
dialogue with ethnic armed groups and is necessary to sustained and
substantial national reconciliation in Myanmar. This not least because a
sustainable resolution to Myanmar’s long-standing ethnic conflicts will be
difficult to achieve without education reform that addresses the right
language policies.
------------------------------

*Marie Lall is professor of education and South Asian studies at UCL
Institute of Education in London and Ashley South is a research fellow at
Chiang Mai University in Thailand. They are the authors of Schooling and
Conflict: Ethnic Education and Mother Tongue-based Teaching in Myanmar, a
report that will be launched at the International conference on language
policy in multicultural and multilingual settings, to be held at Mandalay
University from February 8 to 11.*
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/opinion/18871-the-future-of-mother-tongue-education.html

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