Caught between COVID-19, Coup and Conflict—What Future for Myanmar Higher Education Reforms?

Camille Kandiko Howson,Marie Lall,Khaing Phyu Htut

doi:10.3390/educsci12020067

Camille Kandiko Howson, Marie Lall + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12020067

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Abstract

On 1 February 2021, Myanmar military dictators seized power from the elected government and halted the country’s budding reform process. This article explores how Myanmar’s higher education (HE) sector was affected by the coup and COVID-19 and how this has resulted in societal conflict. The article reviews first the history of military coups, then the education reforms in general and what was done in HE, before discussing the effects of COVID-19 and the coup on the sector. Voices from HE teaching staff show the tension in the role of HE as a vehicle for reform and promulgation of those in power. The article argues that the national vision propagated by Myanmar’s HE sector is juxtaposed to that propagated by the Tatmadaw, both claiming to represent Myanmar’s future. This research highlights the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and military coup at a crucial time for HE reforms in a fragile, conflict-affected state, with the future of the reform goals of equity and equality of the sector at stake.

Highlights

Much of the literature on democratic citizenship engages with how ideals are embedded in higher education (HE) systems [1,2,3]
In Myanmar, HE has been both at the heart of student protests for democracy [4] and at the same time the education institution most repressed by successive military regimes that see students, academics and the HE sector as a challenge to their definition of Myanmar nationalism based on a narrow interpretation of Burmanisation [5,6] that prefers a closed country immune to globalisation and possible “westernisation” brought in through recent reforms
It is obvious from the findings that Myanmar HE teachers and academics are caught between COVID-19, coup and conflict, and the future of HE is uncertain

Summary

Introduction

Much of the literature on democratic citizenship engages with how ideals are embedded in higher education (HE) systems [1,2,3]. In Myanmar, HE has been both at the heart of student protests for democracy [4] and at the same time the education institution most repressed by successive military regimes that see students, academics and the HE sector as a challenge to their definition of Myanmar nationalism based on a narrow interpretation of Burmanisation [5,6] that prefers a closed country immune to globalisation and possible “westernisation” brought in through recent reforms This is exemplified by the slogan of amyo (only the Burman race), barthar (only the Burmese language) and tharthanar (only the Buddhist religion). Subsequent military regimes since 1962 have adopted the same ideology

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