Education and child labour in Myanmar

Education is an important right that every child should be able to have access to. Myanmar’s education system is far behind others because of its bad teachers, bad materials and bad teaching methods. The government is trying to change that and wishes to increase their education level in both quality and numbers. The country has a literacy rate of 89.9 percent (women and men included), which they hope to increase. In here, you will learn about education and child labour in Myanmar.

Education in Myanmar

In Myanmar, the basic education system consists of 5 years of primary school, 4 years of lower secondary school (middle school) and 2 years of upper secondary school (high school). It is based on the United Kingdom’s education system and is operated by the Ministry of Education. School is compulsory until the end of primary school.

One of the problems that Myanmar’s school system is facing, concerns the number of kids enrolled in it. 1 out of 5 kid do not have access to primary education. School attendance seems to drop of 30% for at the age of 17. It is because, as the kids grew up, they have more needs that sometimes get in the way of their education.

Many reasons can explain these numbers. First, school fees might not be affordable for every family. Secondly, as said before, their education system is not very good which makes it seems irrelevant and unimportant. And finally, intern conflicts and natural disasters can also affect the kid’s life and his access to school.

Child labour in Myanmar

The previous hardships might force children to stop attending school and to start working at an early age. That is what we call child labour. Working at such a young age deprives them of a normal childhood and adolescence. Because of the working conditions, they are also facing severe healthy risks. Child labour is also a violation of human rights.

In 2015, over 9% of 5 to 17-year-old were working in child labour. Half of them work in places where they can be harmed both physically and mentally, which is terrible for their development. Sadly, a fourth of them tend to work for over 6O hours a week.

Solution to the education problems

One of the main goals of the Myanmar government is to reduce their numbers of school dropouts. To do that they decided to make education free for everyone. Turning the schools free has caused K7 billion more cost for middle school, and K5 billion for high school, all in charge of the country’s government.

To insure this, they are providing free textbooks and notebooks for the students. This way, the parents would not need to pay for any kind of school fees. Those decisions were very important to take, and they are supposed to reduce the number of kids that drop out of school, and at the same time, to reduce child labour.

Solution to prevent child labour

In order to reduce child labour, Myanmar has formulated a new project. It consists of finding ways to increase awareness and knowledge about child labour, as well as its dangers. They also plan to improve their legislation. This will help the country deal with child labour better and in compliance with the international norms. And by doing so, they would help networks reduce child labour through laws and indirect interventions.

By Tendry Randriamparany

If you liked this article don’t hesitate to visit UNICEF’s page about Myanmar and to read my other article about the American Indian Movement.