[{"bbox": [97, 103, 1177, 181], "category": "Text", "text": "Following the coup, the EU and its member states along with like-minded countries and Development Partners decided to adhere to the principles of non-engagement with the de-facto authorities in Myanmar. Thus, all cooperation with the de facto authorities have been halted."}, {"bbox": [97, 209, 497, 233], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Overview of the education sector context"}, {"bbox": [97, 236, 1177, 607], "category": "Text", "text": "The current context, marked by a lack of contact with the state education system, makes it challenging to collect data and provide educational support to children who are out of school¹⁸. Data on children’s education access is limited and with notable gaps, and not disaggregated (including on disability), especially for conflict-affected areas. Available data indicates a decline in enrolment (of those aged 6-22 years) from 69.2% in 2017 to 56.8% in 2023¹⁹. Access to education varies widely across locations, including between urban and rural areas, states and regions, and high and low conflict areas. Following the coup, it is estimated that around 28% of 6-17 year old children are out of school²⁰, a significant increase from the estimated 21% in 2017; out of these children, 46% are high school-aged, 56% belong to the poorest two quintiles, and 79% live in rural areas; high-conflict townships have a higher percentage of out-of-school children (38%, compared to only 17% in low-conflict townships²¹). The gender gap in terms of access is minor in primary and middle school but favours females in high school. The Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024 says that teenage girls are dropping out at a higher rate than teenage boys in areas where the conflict is ongoing and in ethnic minority areas. Moreover, a significant number of officials and teachers associated with the de facto Ministry of Education (MoE) in Myanmar participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to voice their opposition against the military coup. Reports from 2021 shows that women account for 7% of the deaths and 20% of those under detention."}, {"bbox": [97, 606, 1176, 661], "category": "Text", "text": "²² Consequently, around 30% of the teachers' contracts were terminated, leading to a severe weakening of the public education system's service delivery capacity²³."}, {"bbox": [97, 686, 1177, 1032], "category": "Text", "text": "The education sector in the country is complex due to its history of conflict. About one-third of the population of Myanmar speaks an ethnic language as their mother tongue. Furthermore, according to stakeholders of ethnic education, more than 30% of children in ethnic areas do not speak the Burmese/Myanmar language when starting school²⁴. The State education system is viewed as a tool for assimilation by non-Burmese populations, making it a sensitive area of governance. In addition, state services were neglected in many ethnic areas, for reasons ranging from lack of funding to lack of access because of ongoing conflict. Ethnic education providers have therefore developed a wide variety of own systems to respond to the demand with culturally relevant and mother-tongue-based education services. These providers have been offering education services for decades to fill gaps in government services due to limited financing and lack of access to some of the Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs) controlled areas. Children with disabilities face important difficulties to access education and, while data is limited, some evidence points to that about 45.4% of the children with disabilities aged 5–9 years and 31.4% of the children with disabilities aged 10–13 years have never attended school²⁵. Among the displaced population, access for children with disabilities is even more difficult, due to physical barriers, stigma, insecurity and poverty."}, {"bbox": [97, 1057, 1177, 1270], "category": "Text", "text": "Myanmar's ethnic-based school systems vary in size, resources, funding, curriculum, delivery, and language of instruction, as well as governance structures. Under the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) 2016-21 the MoE under the NLD government had established as a key priority to “support and promote ethnic languages and cultures, including for primary-age ethnic children who speak different languages” along with four main priority areas: increasing teacher's salaries, recruitment of contract teachers (known as daily-wage teachers), school construction, and making education free and compulsory. Since the coup d'état and the consequent annulment of this policy, and at this point in time in the conflict as there has been a withdrawal of state services in many areas, many EROs have progressed towards developing autonomous state structures, in the face of skyrocketing demand due to displacement and withdrawal of state services."}, {"bbox": [86, 1309, 939, 1333], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan Myanmar, Humanitarian programme cycle 2024, Dec. 2023"}, {"bbox": [86, 1333, 675, 1357], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ Education in Myanmar: Where are we now? World Bank, May 2023"}, {"bbox": [86, 1357, 1189, 1430], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁰ In Myanmar, for the academic year 2019-2020, around 9.7 million learners were enrolled in basic education, including 300,000 in Monastic schools and 420,000 in schools managed by ethnic basic education providers. In 2018, prior to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the coup on February 1st, 2021, it was estimated that roughly 2.7 million children were already out of school across Myanmar"}, {"bbox": [86, 1430, 675, 1454], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ Education in Myanmar: where are we now? World Bank, May 2023"}, {"bbox": [86, 1454, 612, 1477], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²² AAPP (Assistance Association for Political Prisioners) CLIP"}, {"bbox": [86, 1477, 1189, 1525], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²³ The State Administration Council (SAC) reported during a press conference in July 2021 that there were a total number of 271,072 teachers in public schools (SAC 2021a). This represents a 30% decline from the 389,241 teachers in the system in 2018-19."}, {"bbox": [86, 1525, 1189, 1599], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁴ This information is contained in the JRF; it should be reminded that systematic and comprehensive data collection is not possible in conflict areas. Nonetheless, this information points to a real issue for ethnic learners that is confirmed by all ethnic education service providers."}, {"bbox": [86, 1599, 1141, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁵ Department of Population; Ministry of Labour & Immigration and Population with technical assistance from UNFPA (2017). The 2014 Myanmar population and housing census: Thematic report on disability. Census Report Volume 4-K."}, {"bbox": [1028, 1656, 1143, 1681], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 33"}]