Conflict Sensitivity

        Conflict Sensitivity in Education Provision
                                   in Karen State
                                                                   by Polina Lenkova*

Yangon, December 9, 2015 – Thabyay Education Foundation's new report calls for conflict-sensitive approaches to education provision in Karen State. The 30-page report, electronically released today in English, includes recommendations for all key stakeholders providing education services in Karen State, a region with a long history of civil war. Print copy of the report, in English and Burmese, is expected to be available in January 2016.

CLICK TO READ THE FULL REPORT

The education landscape in Myanmar's Karen State is very complex, owing its existence to the legacy of a protracted civil war. While the government system focused on the Burman Buddhist majority, ethnic armed opposition groups developed their own ethnic education systems and taught subjects in their languages. Furthermore, some schools were also established by communities with either full or partial autonomy from either part to conflict. During the ongoing peace negotiations, education has not yet been addressed in detail, with more progress to be made during the political dialogue stage. However, while the talks are proceeding slowly, the reality on the ground is changing quickly. Since the 2012 ceasefire between the government and the Karen National Union, the government has built hundreds of new schools and assigned thousands of new teachers to previously inaccessible areas of Karen State.

In this context, community-owned schools are encouraged and sometimes even forced to pass under the government control. When that happens, schools have to adopt the government curriculum, which at the time of writing still reproduces the social and cultural norms of the majority culture. Furthermore, as the government expansion occurs in the context of a variety of education providers, who are too often not consulted or even informed about the government intentions, the lack of an agreement on a conflict-sensitive service delivery in contested areas risks increasing tensions with communities and ethnic armed groups and lead to disputes at the community level.

As Myanmar undergoes a transition to peace, this report aims to encourage a debate about the development of a conflict-sensitive approach to education provision and the future place of ethnic education providers in the national education system. It draws on literature review and field research conducted in Karen State and on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Download Full Report here.

* Polina Lenkova is a research fellow at Thabyay Education Foundation. She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.

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Kant Kaw Education Center
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Curriculum Development
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Thabyay E-learning Platform
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Experiential Learning Program
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