Problem Analysis

Problem Analysis

Although the military regime regularly reports to international organization such as UNICEF and WHO about the situation on education and health, there has never been systematic analysis on deteriorating social problems. After decades of political and social crisis, it is clear that basic rights in education and health are urgent issues to be addressed. Any approach to health and education should be right based. Therefore, education and health research and surveys are also in need for assessment and policy development. This will help to implement development projects effectively and democratizing policy making process for future health and educational development of Burma.
In terms of the development of health and education sectors, NHEC learns that communities urgently need to develop common policies and strategies that will sustain the underprivileged societies in the longer term and help promote reconciliation and democratizing process.
For more than four decades, Burma' education and health systems have suffered from limited access, severe shortage of human resources, malpractices, mismanagement and dysfunctional policies. As sociopolitical crisis has been deteriorating for many decades, previously achieved quality and standard in health and education were lost long time ago.

Access to basic education is very much limited throughout the country. Moreover students have to pay high tuition fees and other costs for all levels. Many families, both in urban and rural areas, cannot afford to send their children to school as children have to work to make end meets. Education for all 2015, and free and quality education advocated by UNICEF is a long way to go for Burma. Access to free and compulsory primary education for all is one of the priorities in education.
Secondly there is a shortage in qualified teachers and human resources in education. It is also learnt that there is a high turnover among teachers. Less than five percent remains as teachers in ethnic areas. More than 50% of teachers do not have a teaching certificate. Discrimination in education is predominant; especially primary teachers and primary schooling are viewed as less important while there is high drop out rate. Providing training and capacity for teacher is very important as teachers serve as role models in Burmese society. Quality education can only be reached with a quality teaching, and thus, teachers' quality and training plays an important role.

Thirdly, it is found that Burma's chronic problem in education is deeply rood in the dysfunctional system and policies. It is ironic that when the regime claimed the system has been reviewed and modernized, under the regime's policies and practices there have an increasing numbers of uneducated graduates (Mizzima News Agency). Education system is very outdated as Burma still practices the pre-colonial structure of 10 years of schooling in basic education while internationally and Burma's immediate neighbors have been utilizing the 12 years of primary and secondary education. There has never been an updated school curriculum for almost 40 years. The curriculum and syllabus are not preparing children to live in a democracy as there is no component of citizenship education. Critical thinking and creativity in education is very limited as the arts stream is not favored or non-existent in many schools. The unbalanced curriculum also lacks the teaching the teaching of health and physical education. Academic subjects such as math and sciences have been given priorities over arts subject¹. So it can be clearly seen that educational policies are not conducive to child's all round development and develop multiple intelligences. More importantly, the curriculum lacks the critical component of teaching citizenship education. The policy crisis is definitely a major blow in education. As there is no academic freedom and freedom of speech, the educators and teachers and general public are powerless and suffering from dysfunctional policies and malpractices in education. In conclusion, Burma' education system is a total collapse.

Therefore, NHEC will implement education projects that guarantee the basic education rights of children. Children’s access to primary education is the focal point of all NHEC’s educational activities.

The NHEC operates in ethnic nationalities' areas where there are civil disturbances: an increasingly complicated political climate combined with unstable civil conflicts, refugee populations, internally displaced people and political oppressions. The marginalized communities, for which NHEC- health and education programs exist, are far behind the standards of neighboring countries in mainland Asia and Southeast Asia.  Indeed, it is lowest in health and educational development measures by any international indicators. There are hundreds of thousands of children who have never seen the inside of a classroom. Inculcating knowledge and skills in young minds, the development of a democratic culture is of prime important. The citizens of future Burma should be prepared in the classrooms of today. While the free access to education for all should be provided, the future citizens should obtain an education conducive to a democratic and peaceful culture.

The Burmese military regime’s policies are such as forced labor, forced relocation and structural violence related to its development policies are continuing to create massive displacement inside Burma and the regime continues to deliberately block humanitarian assistance to large sectors of this population (as Cyclone Nargis has shown). Free access to health care is also lacking throughout the country. According to UNESCAP, 87% of total health expenditures were private while government health expenditure was 2.2% of GDP in 2004. The majority of the people, who live in rural areas, are forced to rely on primitive way of healing, folk medicine and local traditional herbal therapy. Burma is designated as one of the 8 worst countries of fragile states by WHO and The World Bank because of currently un-controlled health problems and dysfunction health system. It means that it will be very difficult to reach the targeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by UN in health sector.

The regimes censorship and information restrictions are one of the main obstacles to obtain health education in Burma and these restrictions prevent field research and effective policy development by civil society registered with the military regime. The Burmese people are neither informed nor educated regarding health issues, and they have no voice in how these problems are addressed or if they are addressed at all. The freedom to organize, participate and express in solving problems through community organizations remains far from the reach of the people of Burma. Therefore responsible and accountable democratic governance is urgently needed.

As neglected in health by military regime, people living in ethnic nationalities areas and along border are most severely affected. Many internally displaced people would have no access to health care if the NHEC and its partner organizations did not operate in those areas. But shortage of qualified health human resources in ethnic areas where facing decades of civil war, is still remaining as a challenge. Free access to primary health care for communities is one of the priorities in health. But this is relying on quantity of qualified community based health human resources and services. According to a survey in Internally Displaced People (IDP) areas in Karen state covered 15,650 households with 94,500 population conducted by NHEC and local partners between September and December 2007, 67.2% responded households had no access to trained health workers. In addition, health human resources need to be re-oriented and trained to new approaches and methods. In particular, they could be equipped with skills required for practical applications of concepts of health promotion and primary health care principles in the context of respecting, fulfilling, and protecting human rights, including the rights to health. Besides, inadequate recognition given to health workers for his skills, performance and achievement do not build confidence and boost the morale to serve better and remain in health sector. Building capacity of senior and middle staff at the administrative and managerial level is in the vital role to implement policies into action and manage change process efficiently.

In order to carry out education and health program and activities effectively and efficiently, we have clearly found out that administrative constraints in all levels have hindered the project implementation. Besides, skills of community organizing and mobilizing of health and education human resources are also in vital role in development of the project and active community participation in education and health activities. Moreover, NHEC would need to encourage the adoption of more participatory methods in planning, program design, management, and to help facilitate exchange of experiences, and to build organizational capacities of member and local institutions, and NHEC itself.

At the same time, the interest in, and ability of member organization to cooperate and implement shared policies and strategies is vital for any sustained effort to overcome the health and education development gaps in ethnic nationalities areas. Simultaneously, insufficient coordination and cooperation among education and health organizations of ethic communities and inadequate support to health and education activities among local authorities and communities are still needed to address in promoting free access to primary education and health care.

NHEC will implement health and education programs to solve above-mentioned problems in fully collaboration with health and education departments of member and affiliated organizations, other local institutions and communities such as Burma Medical Association (BMA), Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT), Teachers' Association, Women League of Burma (WLB), youth organizations, local project partners such as Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and other international donor agencies such as Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Burma Relief Centre (BRC), etc.

As an umbrella organization in health and education of pro-democratic and nationality-based organizations struggling for democratic federal union of Burma, NHEC will carry out its programs in equal partnership with all nationalities and concerned organizations. This project intends to fill the enormous gaps in health and education left by the military regime, by promoting education and health sectors in ethnic nationalities' areas through development of shared policies and strategies in health and educational sectors, organizational capacity, and providing professional skills and abilities, and essential humanitarian assistance and resources.

Target Group

The entire project of NHEC will indirectly target to approximately 2 million populations in ethnic nationalities areas along Burma borders and inside Burma through extensive networking of member and affiliated organizations of NHEC. Its primary target areas are in the regions where there are many diverse ethnic populations living in hardships and struggling to survive. As a coordinating body, NHEC regularly facilitates meeting of these diverse communities, inclusive of ethnic nationalities, refugees and migrant populations and provides opportunities for all the communities across the borders to come, meet and share their experiences and work together for a better Burma.
Recent events have demonstrated that Burma is going to face complicated political, environmental and social crisis.  NHEC has learnt from the events such as Saffron revolution and cyclone Nargis that people inside Burma are in need of supports. As such, NHEC has repositioned the projects to be inclusive of communities beyond members’ organizations’ areas.  NHEC committee has recognized to support such communities in crisis and in need, and is now involved with local community based organizations (CBOs) for inland activities. NHEC will extend current health and educational projects to be part and parcel of communities in crisis anywhere inside Burma.
The primary direct target groups of the project are as followed.

Education:

• 60 (50% of women) in-service teachers from different ethnic areas will be trained as teacher trainers. These trained trainers in cooperation with NHEC's education team and the existing trainers in local will recruit 500 pre-service primary and secondary school teachers. Approximately 20,000 primary and secondary students (50% of girls) in the project's target areas will directly receive benefit. 
• 800 (50% of women) in-service teachers from different ethnic areas will be trained and they will obtain a quality teacher education course focusing child-centred education. Approximately 50,000 primary and secondary students (50% of girls) in the project's target will directly receive benefit.
• 50 (40% of women) teachers and educators from different ethnic groups will be trained as educational researchers. Research will be conducted in ethnic regions. The research findings will be used policy-makers and teachers for educational and social policy development in ethnic areas. 40 research findings will be distributed in three school education research journals (1500 copies for each publication). The NHEC expects that 1,000 people including educational personnel and policy and decision makers representing half of million people in the project's target areas will be read.
• Two community education need surveys in ethnic areas targeted by the project. Finding from surveys will be used by local education institutions, policy-makers and international organizations for education development and social development in ethnic areas. These surveys will benefit to populations residing in the project's target areas.
• Distribution of education supplies will aim to 100,000 primary level students (50% of girls) from schools in the project target areas in order to promote access to primary education and the NHEC expects primary students enrolled in targeted schools will complete the last grade of primary education.
• Approximately 800 primary and secondary students (both boys and girls) from three ethnic areas will get benefit from school development project (model school project) and it will also benefit NHEC and local education institutions to learn how to build a model school especially for education development plan in future.
• Teacher education curriculum development committee consists of 12 educators representing the education departments of member organizations, communities and NHEC. It is expected that 4,000 teachers (majority are women) and approximately 170,000 students (both boys and girls) from ethnic areas will benefit from developed teacher education curriculum.
• An education curriculum committee consists of 20 educators representing the education departments of member organizations, communities, NHEC as well as local education experts. It is expected that 5,000 teachers (majority are women) and 150,000 primary and secondary students (both boys and girls) will benefit from developed curriculum and syllabus.

 

Health:

• 30 (30% of women) experienced and senior health workers from the project target areas will be trained as trainers for community health worker training. These trained trainers will train 450 new Community Health Workers (CHW) to work with communities in target areas on common health problems. The newly trained community health workers and the existing community health workers will encourage access to primary health care for more than 400,000 populations in the project areas.
• 1,000 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) (70% of women) will be trained with updated skills and knowledge. These newly trained TBAs and the existing TBAs will encourage reducing mother and child mortality rate in the project target areas and will directly cover half of million populations in ethnic areas targeted by the project.
• 20 (35% of women) people managing the health projects in their respective areas will be trained as health administrators who manage the projects in the field. These trained health administrators will support institutions and communities in project planning, design and implementation.
• 500 (35% on women) community members from the project target areas will be trained as first aid workers. These first aid workers will cover 200,000 populations.
• 10 (30% of women) new senior health workers will be trained for health information development and management. 5 health information centers in cooperation with local health institutions will be continued in the project target areas. These information centers, which will cover approximately 500,000 populations, will encourage planning and management in community health activities.
• Distribution of essential drugs will benefit and cover for 150,000 populations. Approximately 8,000 populations from three ethnic areas will get benefit from village health development project (model village project) and it will also benefit NHEC and local institutions to learn how to build a model health village especially for health development plan in future.
• School health education activities will cover 100,000 students and indirectly school health education promoting of personal hygiene and awareness of common communicable diseases will benefit more than 300,000 populations.

 

Capacity:

• 500 pre-service teachers, 1,000 in-service teachers and 450 community health workers targeted by the project and covering a half of million populations, will be equipped with community organizing and mobilizing skills.
• 30 member and affiliated organizations of NHEC, local institutions and community based organizations covering between 500,000 and 1 million populations, will participate in NHEC program activities promoting local partnership building.
• 15 people including NHEC staff members will be trained as trainers for project management and trained trainers will train 50 (35% of women) people from health and education areas in project management courses and these people will cover 500 local staff members covering 300,000 populations.
• 45 (40% of women) people will be trained as community management trainers. These trainers will train 1,000 community leaders and members of organizations and covering 300,000 populations in ethnic areas.
• NHEC's Libraries, in cooperation and networking with other local partners' libraries, will cover 70,000 (50% women) people from migrant worker area.
• Distribution of education materials (posters, leaflets) focusing on promotion of rights to education and health as fundamental human rights will benefit populations residing in the project target areas.
• The NHEC website will increase 30% annually in number of visitors and users

 

Strategy

NHEC will implement all its projects based upon the rights based approaches. As clearly outlined in the problem analysis, the losses of fundamental rights have always been a critical issue for Burma. As such, NHEC will lead the local communities to adhere to the principles laid down by the international organizations such as UNICEF and WHO. The empowerments of local communities are viewed essential for sustainable development. The major common approach for health and education will be community empowerment and rights based.

Access to quality primary education and access to primary health care will be promoted in the ethnic regions. NHEC will collaborate with its member organizations and local communities for an increase in accessibility to these services. By providing information, materials and common policy, fundamental rights in health and education will be safeguarded. The top priority of NHEC strategic framework is right to education and health for all.

Secondly, development of human resources in health and education will promote quality and standards which are currently far below neighboring countries. Qualified local human resources will provide quality services that promote quality of life, access to primary education and health care and, democratic ideals. The adverse effect of brain drain will also be partly solved by continuous support for trained personnel in health and education. Gender equality will also be taken account in the HR development.

Thirdly, Burma’s chronic problems in political and social crisis have been associated with dysfunctional policies. Thus, common policy development is critical for peace, development and harmony, primarily in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies such as Burma. Dysfunctional state policies have constantly resulted Burma into chaos and collapse in social sectors. While democratizing process is underway, policy development is NHEC’s priority in strategy. The most promising aspect in the national reform is the enhancement of national educational system to become a powerful and charismatic social structure that ensures the development of a good quality of Burmese citizen.

The strategic framework of education and health program is developed to address the challenges and effectively implement the projects for overall objectives of NHEC. All the projects deal with the current crisis and help promote the policy development. Major projects in education and health are designed in a way relevant to local needs and demands.  The marginalized communities of Burma, whose educational and health concerns are of primary interest for NHEC, are in need of continual support and coordination. In conclusion, NHEC facilitate coordination and cooperation among diverse communities.

The strategies provide a comprehensive framework of actions on education and health for the marginalized communities of Burma and takes account of ethnic nationalities regional perspectives on enhancing these actions. It is an outcome of a series of participatory processes including discussions, consultations and workshops with key players and stakeholders of the region.  It primarily builds upon successful practices of education and health in ethnic areas of Burma. Its main objective is to promote and foster education for all and by all in relation to a global declaration and sustainable society in Burma through the development of regional mechanism for concerted action in education and health.

The strategy attempts to learn from the past “success and mistake” and addresses present and future needs of the society through smart partnership and building of synergy between organizations and agencies. Having considered the issues in the ethnic regions, a framework of actions has been recommended to foster school education and health care in the ethnic nationalities' areas of Burma, which comprises of strengthening the capacity of institutions and communities, developing partnership for collaborative works, improving the curriculum and program development and, mobilizing external resources.

NHEC-education program will implement the projects: (teacher education project) – developing human resources in education, (education research project) - surveying and assessing the community needs, promoting modern teaching and learning strategies and help develop policy in education, (curriculum development project) – developing a common curriculum & standards framework conducive to a democratic federal union, and (all children in school project) –provision of material assistances. These major projects, which are to be carried out by the participation of educators and communities from diverse ethnicities, will equip the ethnic communities for the process of reconciliation, peace and democratizing. At the same time, they will sustain the communities as grass root participation and cooperation in the educational issues enlighten the underprivileged ethnic nationalities and prepare for a knowledge-based society.

NHEC-health program will implement the projects: (community-based health worker training project) – developing and recruiting human resources in health sectors, (health information management and development project) – surveying and assessing the community needs and health situation and help develop policy in health, (promoting primary health care activities) – provision of essential drugs and basic materials. These major projects, which are to be carried out by the participation and collaboration of local institutions and communities, will promote access to primary health care, especially for marginalized ethnic population. 

NHEC-capacity building program will implement the projects: (promoting local partnership and community participation) – strengthening understanding, cooperation and coordination among local institutions and communities, and encouraging and supporting the growth of civil societies and for increased cooperation between local authority and civil societies (organizational capacity development) – building and improving technical and administrative capacity, and information capacity of NHEC, education and health personnel and departments of member organizations. These major projects will increase the effectiveness and sustainability of health and education projects, international support and active local participation in development of health and education.