Myanmar education in crisis amid funding shortages, school closures, airstrikes and displacement

Myanmar's education system has suffered from years of underfunding, political interference, and outdated pedagogical methods. Even before the 2021 military coup, the education system prioritized rote memorization over critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Following the coup, armed conflict, economic collapse, and widespread displacement have further undermined access to quality education, particularly in conflict-affected ethnic regions. In eastern Shan State, teachers and students report that the learning environment is almost entirely based on rote memorization. Classrooms rely solely on blackboards, chalk, and government-issued textbooks, and teachers have very little freedom to adapt lessons or introduce external literature, even when directly relevant to the curriculum. A 38-year-old Shan female teacher, who requested anonymity for security reasons, has been teaching 8th-grade Myanmar language for over a decade. Her official monthly salary is an estimated 350,000 kyats, which at the time of the interview was only about 3,000 Thai baht, insufficient for a family in the border region where Thai baht is used daily. "My husband is a farmer. While our small plot of land is sufficient to feed our family, we still rely on additional income for the household," she said. "I teach tuition after school because the government salary alone cannot support the family," she added. She charges about 300 baht per month per student and stated that while she doesn't want to teach extra hours, she has no other choice. "Almost every teacher gives tuition. Most teachers focus more on giving tuition after school because it can provide additional income that cannot be earned from their salaries," she said. Reliance on tuition places a financial burden on families in rural and conflict-affected areas. Sai Naung, a seventh-grade student, said his family's poverty left him with no choice but to attend tuition. "My family is poor, so I don't want to attend tuition. But I have no choice. If I don't attend tuition, my chances of passing the exams will be very slim," he said. Lin Sai Kham, a 16-year-old 10th-grade student near the Thai-Myanmar border, said tuition has become the primary learning place, surpassing classroom instruction. "We learn only about 30 percent from school. Tuition is more important. It's okay to miss school, but if I miss tuition, my chances of failing the exam are much higher," she said. Regular school hours are spent selecting which textbook passages might be asked in exams, while private tuition, costing about 500 baht per month at the high school level, offers more detailed explanations and memorization techniques, she said. Her daily routine consists of "attending school during the day, going to tuition in the afternoon, waking up early to study, doing homework, and then repeatedly reading the textbooks aloud to memorize everything for the exams." The exam-centric system described by these students is linked to a drastic decline in the number of exam takers nationwide. According to ISP-Myanmar, over 900,000 students took the university entrance exam in Myanmar in 2020, but this number is projected to fall to around 200,000 by 2025. Enrollment in basic education schools dropped from over 9.7 million in the 2019-20 academic year to 6.1 million in 2025-26. This is significantly lower than the annual enrollment target of around 10 million based on population growth since 2018-19, and it has failed to meet the target for five consecutive years. According to the 2019 interim census and UNFPA figures, out of an estimated 13 million school-aged children in 2025-26, about seven million (around 53 percent) are missing out on basic education. National literacy statistics are also outdated and contradictory. The last full census in Myanmar in 2014 reported an adult literacy rate of 89.5 percent (92.6 percent for males and 86.9 percent for females). Separate publications from the World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported a lower adult literacy rate of 75.551 percent (80.012 percent for males and 71.847 percent for females) for 2016. Since then, there have been no new nationwide literacy surveys, and the impact of conflict and displacement since 2021 on literacy cannot be precisely determined from the data. According to UNICEF's 2026 appeal, 16.2 million people, including 4.9 million children, require humanitarian assistance, and 3.4 million children urgently need learning support. The appeal states that only about 667,000 children (including pre-primary education) have received formal or informal education. As of mid-2025, there are over 3.5 million internally displaced persons in the country, of whom nearly 30 percent are children, and 55 percent of children in Myanmar live in poverty. Junta forces frequently attack schools and other civilian targets. Between 2023 and 2024, 217 attacks on schools and 141 instances of schools being used for military purposes have been confirmed. According to the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, over 125,000 teachers have lost their jobs between February 2021 and January 2025, at least 37 have been killed, and nearly 500 have been arrested, with 396 still in detention. In 2024, over 750 children were killed or maimed due to conflict, at least 250 of whom were due to landmines and unexploded ordnance. In the first half of 2025, 357 people nationwide were injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war.