"U Zaw Myo Hlaing, the federation’s secretary, said the annual Basic Education Exchange that started Tuesday in the nation’s capital would not bring about any significant changes in education. “We decided not to attend as the Ministry of Education has not agreed to abandon the plan to extend the school year by one month,” he said. “We heard the event was just for people to present academic papers.” The teachers say that extending the school year to the end of March would be too much of a burden on them and students’ parents. U Ko Lay Win, director general of Basic Education Department, confirmed that Tuesday’s event was aimed at giving academics a chance to present their findings on changes in the education system this year. He said that if one of the papers presented was about the school-year extension, then the teachers could discuss the issue. He added that the academic exchange on basic education was aimed at carrying out education reform and developing work programmes. Eleven papers were submitted at the exchange last year..."