18 Sep

Union Minister for Education Dr Myo Thein Gyi joined the 9th Annual Forum for High Officials of Basic Education of SEAMEO member countries and associate member countries, which was held online yesterday, under the theme of ‘School Reopening and Rehabilitation Strategy for Covid-19 in Southeast Asia’. At the meeting, the Union Minister explained the reopening strategy of schools jointly implemented by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Sports after adopting the 80 assessment points.

Under this strategy, a total of 6,526 schools were reopened, out of 7,173 high schools across the country. However, these schools were closed on 27 August due to spread of COVID-19. Dr Myo Thein Gyi also said that the MoE has set a policy of no discrimination, noone is left behind in education and no dropout rate from schools. The preliminary results from Inter Census Survey 2019 have shown the increasing rate of school enrollment has increased, the dropout rate at the primary level has lowered under 1 per cent. The ministry also upgraded the courses of education colleges from 2 years to 4 years, developing into the degree colleges, and established the Myanmar Digital Education Platform.

He also highlighted the importance of technology and infrastructure development in ASEAN during the Industry 4.0 era, online learning of soft skills for 21st century and fostering high-tech learning and high-touch learning to be able to generate locally and globally competitive young generation.

Dr Ethel Agnes P. Valenzuela, the director of SEAMEO Secretariat in Thailand, delivered a speech, followed by keynote presentations of Dr Libing Wang from the UNESCO Bangkok, Mr Francisco Benavides from the UNICEF EAPRO and Director-General U Ko Kay Win from the Basic Education Department. Professor U Tun Aung Chein and Dr U Win Aung acted as the moderators at the panel discussion where Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam submitted their country papers, and the presentations of Australia and Spain.

MNA (Translated by Aung Khin)