174 Brooke Zobrist and Patrick McCormick
theory free, usually entails various costs because of the chronic state of
underfunding. On top of paying for school uniforms, books and stationery,
parents are often obliged to pay “fees” to school administrators for a seat
in the classroom, school ceremonies and school equipment. Parents are also
expected to send their children to “tuition”, after-school tutoring usually
by the local school teacher, who reviews class lessons.^19 Many teachers
depend on this tuition as their primary source of income. Students who
do not attend risk failing examinations.
Even in places served by government schools, many families send
their children to monastic schools in order to escape the burdens of fees.
These schools often operate through the support of donors and do not ask
families to pay the basic costs of schooling. The curriculum in the monastic
system is the same as in government schools, but falls under the purview
of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Another final type of school are the so-called national schools. The
set-up, funding and curricula of these schools varies widely depending
on the particular non-state group that runs them. The Mon National
Schools, for example, combine elements of the government schools and
Buddhist monastic education: they follow the government curriculum
with the addition of Mon history and language. Many are held in monastic
compounds. The teachers in these non-government schools are not
government-certified. It is not clear to what extent other so-called national
education departments of non-state armed groups follow the government
curriculum. For example, at least some Karen national schools teach only
in a Karen language and English, thus preparing students for national
life in no country.
Currently, there are eleven years of schooling in the education system:
five years of primary, four of middle school, and two of high school.
The system is designed for students to enter First Standard at age five
and graduate from high school at age sixteen or seventeen. The central
government, not local governments, hires and pays teachers in government
schools. Teachers must complete a series of pre-service programmes at
one of the country’s twenty Teachers’ Colleges. The Ministry of Education
increased the number of teachers in 2013–14 and so has recruited 10,000
Assistant Junior Teachers. These new teachers will not have attended the
two years of preparation courses that other teachers must complete in
order to qualify as teachers in state schools.
Table 7.1 gives a sense of the magnitude of the task confronted by the
Ministry of Education. The ministry sets the curriculum for all schools,