Educational Access and Disparities in Myanmar

Overview & Synopsis

Myanmar’s education sector experienced significant progress in expanding access across all levels in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these achievements, Myanmar faces persistent challenges in delivering quality education, with student performance lagging regional standards. The education sector in Myanmar experienced severe disruptions due to the pandemic and the subsequent military coup, resulting in prolonged school closures and a weakened public education system. These challenges have been further compounded by Myanmar’s deteriorating economic situation since the military takeover in 2021. Further, education spending in Myanmar has declined, with the first year-on-year declines in nominal spending for education since FY2011-12. This reduction in financial support along with decrease in the number of teachers due to the dismissal of those participating in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) suggests a likely decline in the quality of teaching and learning for students who remain in school. To address these urgent challenges, development partners put forward the Myanmar Joint Response Framework (JRF) for the Education Sector 2022-2025 in March 2022. The JRF focuses on supporting community-based and open learning modalities through civil society organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the near term, with plans to progressively increase engagement as the political and operating environment improves. The report focuses on the following key questions: (1) what is the current state of enrollment rates across different education levels?; (2) how do enrollment rates vary across different demographic and socioeconomic groups?; (3) what are the main factors contributing to children being out of school?; and (4) how are households coping with disruptions in schooling, including the use of online education and non-public schools? The report is structured as follows: section 1 gives introduction. Section 2 outlines the data and methodology, section 3 examines the state of education access and disparities, section 4 explores household coping strategies, and section 5 summarizes the findings and provides concluding remarks.