FINANCING FOR EQUITY
1. Overall Education Financing Mechanisms
2. Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Schools
3. Education Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and Families
4. Social Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and their Families
Basic education is free of charge and compulsory. The government introduced free and compulsory education 2011 -2012 for primary education, 2012-2013 middle school, and 2015-2016 for high school. Free education covers school fees, stationary, and parent teacher association and the provision of textbooks and school uniforms in all Government schools.
The MoE allocates funds to States and Regions for Basic Education expenses using three criteria: number of students, number of teachers, and average rate of execution of the transferred budget in the last 3 years. Since 2009, the department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education (MoE) transfers operations funding to schools through township education offices nationwide and has so far reached 47,000 government and monastic basic education (primary, middle, and high) schools. Transfers are from US$ 400 to US$ 15,000. The amount is set using a funding formula based on school size. This formula presents problems as it does not account for transportation costs of schools located in remote areas.
The MoE manages most of the schools although a significant number of students attend monastic, private, community, and ethnic education schools. Private sector cooperation is encouraged in every level of education and private schools are expected to comply with national law.
The school aged population is 11.4 million. In 2017, the basic education system consisted of 27,000 primary, 15,000 middle and 4,000 high schools, serving approximately 9 million students. Additionally, almost 300,000 children attended approximately 1,500 monastic education schools and about 400 private schools. In the same year, the budget for the education sector was of US$ 1.32 billion (MMK 1,784.2 billion) adding up to 7.8% of the government budget, or 1.9% of the GDP. In 2015, the MoE expenditure accounted for 80% of the government’s education expenditure while the rest came from 14 other ministries. The Ministry’s Department of Basic Education received 77% of this budget and the Department of Higher Education received 17%. Most of these funds are channeled to local administrations. For example, approximately 85% of the budget of the Basic Education Department is transferred to state and regions.
The external contributions to the education sector that are on budget have increased from previous years, but have remained under 1% of the total budget. In addition to the World Bank program of US$ 54m until 2021, the GPE has a program for US$ 73.7m until 2023.
Compulsory and Inclusive Education Programme (CIEP)
This program promotes equitable access to basic education by supporting learners from poor households who are not enrolled or are at risk of dropping out of school. The program has three main components:
- Identification of townships based on the greatest need using the school census. Once identified, the MoE collaborates with civil society organizations to engage communities and encourage children to enroll or return to school. Likewise, Township Education Offices (TEOs) manage grants to fund School Action Plans targeting at risk children.
- Remedial education, expansion of stipends to middle and monastic schools' students and school feeding programs. The Ministry of Education operates the school-feeding programme and take-home family rations for children in primary schools in Chin State, Northern Rakhine State, Northern and Southern Shan State, and Magway Region. The program is funded by World Food Programme Myanmar, UNICEF, INGOs and NGOs. In 2016, the program reached 31,800 pre-school and 264,875 primary schoolchildren in 3,293 schools.
- Children with disabilities: the objective is to move children with disabilities from special needs to mainstream schools. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement (MSWRR) holds the responsibility for the education of children with disabilities and special schools, The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) has an administrative role at division and state level for its provision but it not have local offices.
This program is within the Department of Basic Education. In 2017, the government assigned 77% of the education budget to this area.
This program started in 2009-2010, falls under the budget of the Basic Education program of the MoE and seeks to alleviate the financial pressure of household expenditure on education (estimated at two thirds of overall education expenditure). In 2017-2018, the program operated in 55 townships and provided monthly transfers to more than 192,000 poor and at-risk students in grades 5 to 11. The program is financed with the support of the World Bank, Australia, Denmark, and Finland.
The selection process first looks at townships with high poverty and low educational performance, then it identifies schools with a greater number of poor children, and finally it prioritizes poor and vulnerable students in Grades 5-11. Students receive stipends of US$ 3.30 for primary education, US$ 5.30 for middle school, and US$ 6.60 for high school for four consecutive years if they comply with the conditions on school enrolment and attendance, good behavior, and performance.
This program is within the Department of Basic Education. In 2017, the government assigned 77% of the education budget to this area.
There are eight social protection programs in Myanmar but none of them except for the school feeding program has a conditionality in education.
