Dr Win Aung
MRTV broadcast an education roundtable talk on upgrading the capabilities of teachers. The roundtable includes discussion from National Education Policy Commission Member Dr. Win Aung, Yangon University of Education Rector Dr. Aye Aye Myint, Department of Higher Education Deputy Director General Dr. May San Yi, Department of Education Research Planning and Training Deputy Director General Dr. Zaw Latt Htun, Technical and Vocational Education nd Training Department Director Dr. Pyae Kyaw Thu and Department of Basic Education Director U Toe Win.
Facilitator: First of all, tell us about your work in educational development in Myanmar.
Dr. Win Aung: We are all aware that roaring change in Myanmar’s education system is supported and pushed by the government. If we look at the world’s precedence, we can see that teachers are of supreme importance upon enacting any change in the educational sector. Hence, most countries in the world accept that teachers are the core and is putting their emphasis on training and developing the skillsets of the teachers. Following such footsteps, as a nation, Myanmar plans to emphasize and pay attention to the teachers and their skill development as outlined in the National Education Strategic Plan 2016-21.
Executing the plan
To summarize, there are two parts. The first part is to give the teachers preliminary training to equip them with the tools they will need later before they enter the workforce. The second part is that the teachers will need to learn more materials once they graduated from such preliminary training courses. The Ministry of Education is currently working on continuously building the skillsets and training the teachers as they continue to be in the workforce in the form of teacher training courses.
These preliminary training courses are given as University of Education, Education Colleges, Diploma Courses and other certified training course. In the same way, the University for the Development of the National Races of the Union have courses on nurturing teachers and help fulfill the national requirements of teachers. This is the preliminary stage before the teachers enter the workforce. Regarding the teachers that are already in the system working, their development training can be categorized into four types.
The first type is when teachers are moving from teaching one stage to another. It is vital that during that change, teachers are equipped with the skills and qualities to be able to teach the upgraded stage. For example, a primary school teacher wants to teach middle school. Or a middle school teacher wants to be a high school teacher. In both cases, they need training to be able to teach the other grade. For this, the Ministry of Education is holding courses on primary school correspondence, middle school correspondence and vocational diploma correspondence.
Secondly, in changing the Myanmar’s education system, there are cases where the entire nation’s teachers have to be trained as a whole. For instance, the nation is currently working for a new education system from kindergarten to 12th grade as per the Myanmar National Education Law. In bringing this system to life, the teachers of the entire country have to be familiar and be training to teach this newly implemented curriculum. In this industry, this type of preparation for the teachers is immensely important.
Cooperating with partners
The third type are not lectured across the entire country but are separate innovative techniques that are being tried in specific district of selected schools. For these courses, they are not given for capability building across the whole country but are specifically designed for target schools and teachers. The Education Ministry has cooperated with multiple partners on several instances for this type of training.
The last type of program isn’t necessarily training but is to send highly qualified and experienced teachers to schools where they would observe the resident teacher’s practical teaching skills and give them feedback for improvements. This type of program is praised highly internationally and is given great credit. Myanmar also have such kind of programs, in collaboration with international partners like the World Bank, to send highly qualified and experienced teachers to tour the schools and provide close and tailor feedback to help the schools. This program has already begun to take shape.
Facilitator: Can you let us know about the plans to increase the capabilities of teachers through the University of Education?
Dr. Aye Aye Myint: Along with our university and the University of Education, there is also the University of Education in Sagaing and the University for the Development of the National Races of the Union that trains future high school teachers. I am speaking on behalf of them. Our school provides a five-year B.Ed. to train for the teachers that will enter the Pre-service training as Dr. Win Aung explained earlier.
As explained early, for these teachers to fulfill their requirements at work and professional development, we have to constantly be working towards adding to their skillsets. This is why In-service trainings are being held regularly. Right now, the schools have the usual B.Ed. course, Pre-services courses and courses aimed for the teachers in the workforce, known as a Refresher course. There are courses like in-service training and also Human Resource Development which works towards individual development. So, we have the regular classes and the HRD classes for the teacher’s development and training.
First of all, our school equips students to be high school teachers with the five-year B.Ed. The Education degree and the five-year training are all being offered here. For the curriculum, it is just like what Dr. Win Aung mentioned before. The teacher’s competencies and skills are all developed before they enter the show. Hence, the courses are designed to include attitude value and professional development skills to prepare future school teachers.
For In-service training, when these teachers get to their respective work environments, for their professional development, primary school teachers want to work towards teaching middle school, middle school teachers want to teach high school, primary school principals, teachers and middle school teachers want to obtain the B.Ed. certificate. They want to develop their skills and for such, it is two years distant learning for a B.Ed.
First year and second year classes are also being held. For that, first year is 1500, second year is 1500 and a total of 3000 hours for the in-service training to improve the skills of teachers.
In training for the B.Ed., we teach them the academics for science and chemistry along with the pedagogy to teach such subjects. The teachers are not restricted to just knowing the curriculum; they should also have the knowledge and skills along with practicum. Lastly, there will be professional development training to build up the future teacher’s professional skills.
Hence, the five-year course isn’t just teaching the curriculum. We are preparing the future teacher with academic management activities so they can nurture an all-round development in others. We have debate competition and impromptu talks to improve their Burmese and English cognitive skills and sometimes even essay competitions. We also have an arts and literature club along with Myanmar Literature and English clubs. Others activities include organizing roundtables amongst themselves during big holidays like Martyr’s Day, Union Day and Independence Day. They also invite the professors to hold seminars. Such activities provide an all-round academic enrich activities that improves the future teacher’s cognitive skills, creative and critical thinking which are very useful in the 21st century. Another thing is that teachers are a type of social workers in the society that will provide great benefits to the community. Schools develop such people to benefit the Myanmar society as a whole. As such, social enrichment activity designs are also included in the professor’s curriculum and practice.
There are the scouts, UTC and other red cross societies that head blood drives. During a natural disaster such as floods, they go organize and volunteer themselves to help out. We encourage them all to go on field trips in addition to academics. What I want to say is that classroom education and classroom learning are not the only activities anymore. We want the future teachers to be familiar with out of the classroom -and even cloud education- as well.
To train an all-round teach, the University of Education B.Ed. is the way. After the course, they are responsible for their professional development. For that comes the Master’s degree for specialization and taking on the next level of education. This is a regular class. You can also opt for a qualification class known as the M. EdQ if you do not qualify for the Masters. In order to have qualified teachers, we have the M.Ed. along with other higher education courses to nurture future professors and experts in education.
Facilitator: It is also important to train the skills and abilities of the professors who are training the teachers for professional development. Can you explain to us the capacity building programme to enhance the skills of the professors?
Dr. Aye Aye Myint: You are correct. It is important to increase the skill sets and competencies of the Teacher Educators who are training the future teachers. Hence, we have been constantly working on our capacity building efforts. First is to attend the seminars, training sessions and workshops held by us and the ministry of education. There are also discursion tables you can attend and programs to enhance your skillsets. For example, let’s look at myself. I am an instructional leader as the rector of the University of Education. There is currently a National Institute for High Education under NEPC for leader management. Myself, along with my colleagues ranging from instructional professors to management committee members have attended such courses on leadership, management instructional leadership and administrative function. There are also other higher education facilities such as the University of Medicine, Technology University, TVET departments who sometimes need TOT Training that I have to go lecture and share my knowledge. By lecturing, I further develop my pedagogy and have it up to date. Hence, by sharing our knowledge, us, as teacher educators develop our own capacity building.
To be continued
(Translated by Mya Myat Thwe)
