A person teaching without a teacher license is subject to a prison sentence, according to the draft of a private education law that was released in December 2017.
According to the draft law’s chapter 13 section 47, no one should work as a private school teacher without having a teacher license. Violations may lead to three to six months imprisonment, a maximum K2 million fine or both.
In Myanmar’s culture, parents may home school their offspring. Brothers can teach their younger sisters and aunties can teach their nieces. Thus, they may be imprisoned for unlicensed teaching, said U Kyaw Min Khant, secretary of private sector matters at the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation.
“The draft law misunderstands the situation on the ground. We are not opening terrorist trainings and KTV rooms. The government can issue ordinary laws for private schools. Teaching becomes an offence, which is our main objection to this draft,” he added.
The Myanmar Teachers’ Federation held a seminar on Wednesday and discussed about the private education draft law with private schools representatives and experts. The shortcoming of the legislation highlighted during the seminar will be submitted to Hluttaw. In addition, the federation asked the public for suggestions concerning the law.
Besides the private education law, three draft laws on education have been recently released: the basic education law, higher education law, and technology vocational education and training law.
The four laws will be discussed during the Hluttaw session starting on January 15.
The National Network for Education Reform, which frequently criticises the government’s education reform, said there are many criminal penalties in the private education draft law.
“The law imposes jail time rather than helping and supporting education. It is difficult for self-founded schools to meet the requirements as they are many such schools in remote areas of Myanmar,” said Daw Than Than Htwe, secretary of the network.
The private education draft law was issued in August 2017. Prior to that, the Ministry of Education published a draft submitted to the Hluttaw under the previous government, but it was re-visited and released as a draft in August 2016.
Source: Myanmar Times
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