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Myanmar’s expenditure on education in 2019 amounted to approximately percent of total government spending. This was an increase of less than one percent from 2017. Despite Myanmar’s efforts to put more focus on to its education sector, a higher share of government spending went on defense. Despite not having a higher level of expenditure put into education, Myanmar still had a high net enrollment rate in primary schools.

Efforts towards improvement

As Myanmar has begun to attempt to recover from economic hardship experienced through sanctions, there has been a realization that there is a need for more qualified individuals who can stimulate economic and social development. A new wave of highly qualified individuals and experts would require an education sector which can provide the necessary training needed to advance academically. Therefore, Myanmar has increased its efforts to improve access to and the quality of basic education. The country hopes to achieve this through funding received from the International Development Association which will be targeted at the most disadvantaged areas and underachieving schools. Although a significant number of people in Myanmar have a bachelor’s degree, it is predominantly only the wealthy who are able to progress into higher education.

Problems: past and present

Long periods of social and political instability brought about by civil war have had a profound impact upon the education sector in Myanmar. The education system is run by the government and there have existed such extreme differences in the quality of teaching that students have gotten to grade level without being able to read and write. Consequently, Myanmar has had a significantly high illiteracy rate among adults. For this reason, strong competition to secure places in better schools has developed. There have been instances of corruption within the education sector, with school principals accepting bribes from parents to allow their children into certain schools. New initiatives plan to eradicate the bribery within the education system and give less-advantaged children a higher quality of education.