Primary and Secondary Education in Myanmar 181
and others down from higher levels. Data aggregation will be moved
up to the district from the township, while the authority to move
teachers from school to school within a district moves down to the
district level from the state or region. These changes represent an
attempt at deconcentration, reflecting a national decision to build up
more administrative capacity at a lower level in the administrative
structure.^35 In actual fact, this new level may simply represent a
greater extension of ministry authority in a new fashion.- There have been a few small changes related to appointments.
According to the interviewees, in 2013, for the first time, region and
state-level ministry officials were allowed to appoint one type of
teacher, the Junior Assistant Teachers. All other teachers continued to
be appointed at the Union Level, as is all education-sector leadership. - Curriculum and assessment were still under central control of the
Ministry of Education.
Fiscal
- For decisions related to infrastructure, school repairs and maintenance,
the authority remained mixed. Some decisions were made at the
Township, others at Departments of Basic Education. Township
officers must seek approval from the Departments of Basic Education,
apparently skipping the state and regional levels. More investigation
is necessary, especially since these decisions involve potentially
lucrative building contracts. - According to interviewees, budget decisions continued to be made
at the national level, with no authority delegated to lower levels. A
limited, small exception was that starting in 2012, school principals
have been given a limited discretionary budget, under which
expenses have already been narrowly allocated by type of expense.
Principals had no authority to diverge from a pre-set plan and must
report up to the Township Education Officer. - Policies on raising revenue at lower levels were unclear. No one
below the central level could approach international donors. In
practice, however, the School Welfare Committees or Parent-Teacher
Associations of individual schools could raise revenues, as was the
case, for example, for emergency repairs through School Welfare
Committees or Parent-Teacher Associations. The principal must seek