Description:
"NNER has done on education reform about 28 seminars,
several meetings and discussions
over the years 2012 and 2013. It collected advice, opinions and suggestions from various
groups ?students, teachers, monks, National?s Literature & Cultural associations, political
parties, persons-with-disabilities organizations and educationalists. In June 2013, the national
convention on education was held and principles were agreed upon. These
principles on
educational reform were presented to the Parliament both Upper (Pyithu Hluttaw) and Lower
House
(Amyotha Hluttaw), the Government and the People.
It was known that National Education Law has been approved by the Parliament on 31 July
2014. But there are still some disagreements and so hereby this statement is issued:
(1)"National Education
Commission" as stated in Chapter IV of National Education Law is
not necessary.
"Higher Education Co-ordination Committee" as stated in Chapter V,
Section
27 is not also necessary.
Apart from military and religious academies, a
ll the educational
institutions vis-a-vis Basic Education, Higher Edu
cation and Vocational Education
should be
under The Ministry of Education.
Universities and colleges must be autonomous and on
necessity, they
may cooperate on democratic principles.
For academic quality assurance,
assessments must be done by a team of independent specialists...
(2) In the National Education Law, Inclusive Education should be defined
clearly, and the
rights of the children including
the children-with-disabilities must be prescribed.
NNER
seriously opposes what appears
to be the discrimination of the
children-with-disabilities: the
principles as
shown in Section 2, Sub-section
(p), Section 4, Sub-section (c), Section 37 and
Section 41, Sub-section (b)
are found to be against the
principles of Inclusive
Education.
On 7 December
2011, The Government had
signed the agreement of United
Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD), but
it is absolutely
neglected and the National
Education Law is drafted on the
concept of Special Needs
Education which s
till allows the discrimination.
Hence the law must be revised...
(3) For the minorities, NNER?s principle is Mother tongue-based Multilingual Education ?
Mother tongue, Burmese and English should be taught. The individual school boards itself has
to decide which Mother tongue they are going to teach...
(4) NNER aims at the democratic education which guarantees the Right to
Association,
the
Right to Assembly,
the Right to Free Speech and the
Right to Choice. NNER seriously
opposes
the l
aw as shown in Section 4,
Sub-section (m) which states the
decentralization will
be applied on condition that the
teachers are moral, responsible
and able to make decisions is
rather insulting; it appears to erode the
personal prestige of teachers...
(5) NNER does not agree with the law
as shown in Chapter XI. Section 57, Sub-section (a),
which states that the
Basic Education schools must be
managed by the Ministry of Education:
the ministry rather should play the role
of facilitator; the school
management should be done
by the respective school
boards,
which constitute the school principal, the teache
rs, parents
and the respectable
citizens....
(6) The National Education Law should state distinctly that curriculum
should be flexible and
school-based vis-a-vis Basic Education Curriculum as
shown in Section 39, Sub-section (f)
and (g). For standardization requirement, "minimum
learning capacities" should be used...
(7) NNER does not agree with the law as
shown in Section 21, Sub-section (a), which states
that student-centered approach will be the only pedagogical
way: rather the learning-centered
approach which encompasses all the
pedagogy.
As to the assessment, formative assessment, rather than summative must be used: the
summative assessment encourages the rote. NNER
rejects
the examinations to be held at the
end of
Primary and Secondary Education on
the same reason that these examinations are
testing the summative....
(8) Instead of compulsory and free Primary Education as shown in Section
17, it should be
compulsory and free Secondary Education: the reason is
to safeguard the children?s Rights;
the respective
ministries, state authorities,
parents & guardians, schools, international
organization
s and civil society are
responsible for that...
(9)
Regarding the finance of Education sector, the Muscat Agreement,
UNESCO, 2014
advises to use 4-6% of GDP or 15-20% of National Budget:
National Education Law must
declare that amount is to be used without fail."
Source/publisher:
National Network for Education Reform (NNER)
Date of Publication:
2014-08-19
Date of entry:
2015-08-03
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
274.76 KB