Burma is an ethnically-diverse country which has been ruled by military dictatorship since 1962. The education system has been decimated by the military junta. ECLS graduates Dr. Thein Lwin (MEd 1997, EdD 2001) and Nan Lung (MEd, 2002, currently an IPhD student) have established an independent non-profit making educational programme, Teacher Training for Burmese Teachers (TTBT), based in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.
TTBT supports education in ethnic minority areas and ceasefire areas inside Burma, in refugee camps along the Thai- Burma border, and for the Burmese migrant population in Thailand. A strength of the TTBT programme is that it welcomes trainees from all the ethnic and religious groups. In 2007 Lwin won a prestigious “Reagan- Fascell Democracy Fellowship” and presented a paper on Education for Democracy in Burma to the US Congress. Lwin is a Visiting Fellow of the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching in ECLS.
Sue Robson, Head of ECLS, is adviser to TTBT. In January 2008 Sue contributed to an educational leadership and management programme delivered in Chiang Mai for headteachers from Buddhist monastery schools, Christian mission schools and orphanages. Ankura, Principal and Candima, Vice Principal, joined us from the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic High School, where they manage 160 teachers and over 7000 students, with 100 to 124 pupils in each class. Reverend Kelly P Lyan participated as Head of 27 Seventh Day Adventist Schools in Upper Myanmar. A core element of the TTBT training prepares teachers to develop interactive classrooms where students are actively involved in discussions, problem solving, and group activities. The negotiation of democratic classrooms is fundamental to the aim of preparing young people in the hope of a return to a democratic Burma in the future.
After the training, we were relieved to receive emails from several participants to confirm that they had arrived safely back in Burma . Ashintay Zaw and the other monks were particularly vulnerable, as they had been visited by military intelligence during the training.
Reverend Philip Zau Awng wrote as follows:
“We arrived safely in Mandalay in the evening of 14 February. I have the most valuable times with my co-workers at the orphanage to share the learning opportunities I gained from you all including my friends from different places in Myanmar……………
With that training, I am really equipped to change something in education around my small community. I am really motivated and challenged to go forward for the children. Sincerely yours,
Philip”