Union Minister for Education Dr Myo Thein Gyi organized a virtual meeting with education staff from the ministry’s departments including the Union Minister’s Office, interested staff and NESP 2 Drafting Teams on drafting of National Education Strategic Plan 2021-2030 yesterday.

The Union Minister, Deputy Minister U Win Maw Tun, Permanent Secretary, Directors-General, officials and education staff from the ministry and departments participated in the meeting via videoconferencing.

Speaking to the meeting attendees, the Union Minister stressed the importance of cooperation spirit of the ministry, universities, schools and institutes in reviewing the condition of Education Sector Analysis-ESA on the National Education Strategic Plan 2016-2021.

Education reform would be successful only with the cooperation spirit and collective strengths. Implementations leading to quality education are also being made, he added, saying that if the works are done with family spirits, successful works would be more successful and difficulties and challenges could be overcome together.

The ministry was making education reform in accordance with NESP 2016-2021 towards the core values of objectives – no one left behind in the education reform, no dropping out of school, not losing learning opportunities, students to become decent human beings, cooperation, accountability and creativity.

The government already published and distributed the new textbooks for kindergarten and 12 classes of basic education. Learning and teaching must be made in accordance with Teacher Competency Standard Framework-TCSF, he added.

Teachers were being appointed and trained for building their capacity and sustainable development. Scholarships for them were also provided.

The rate of primary, middle and high school completion has increased. In 2018-2019 academic year, students who studied at high school classes exceeded 1 million the first time. In 2019-2020 academic year, students studied at primary, middle and high school classes reached 9.716 million in total. In 2020, a total of 566,274 students got the certificates of high school completion.

According to analysis reports about primary school completion, reading analysis at primary school and mathematics analysis at primary schools, students from Myanmar are good at reading, writing and mathematics skills.

Students from Myanmar achieved a total of six honorary mentions in competing at International Mathematical Olympiad between 2016 and 2020. According to national education quality index, those who got the certificate of basic education school completion can join Level 4 vocational schools, Level 5 vocational schools for diploma and advanced diploma courses, and open universities.

The ministry already provided nine English proficiency courses, seven IT courses, management, and financial management courses, and was working on short-term courses for requirements from technical, vocational and training sector, diploma courses, and upgrading curriculums.

He called for collective cooperation in creating learning opportunities of lifelong learning blended effective subjects, saying that the ministry was working on all citizens to complete basic high school education.

Permanent Secretary Dr Zaw Myint introduced the drafting works of NESP 2021-2030 and detailed about the Education Sector Analysis-ESA conducted by UNESCO IIEP.

Director-General U Ko Lay Win discussed basic education sector, Director-General Dr Sai Kyaw Nai Oo technical and vocational sector, Director-General Dr Thein Win higher education sector, Director-General Dr Win Tun management, cooperation, capacity building and quality assurance sector. Attendees at the meeting made discussions about the NESP 2021-2030 and gave suggestions.

MNA (Translated by Kyaw Zin Tun)