Education System in Myanmar

The educational system of Myanmar is operated by the government Ministry of Education. Universities as well as  professional institutes from upper Myanmar as well as lower Myanmar are run by two separate entities. The  entities are known as  the Departments of Higher Education that operates both in  Lower Myanmar and Upper Myanmar.  the office  headquarters of this  department are based in Yangon and Mandalay respectively. The education system of   Myanmar is based on the education system  of   United Kingdom.  The reason  behind  this  is  that the country has   been under  the  British  rule for  almost  a  century.  The Christian presence in Myanmar have also influenced  the  education system of  Myanmar.  

In Myanmar  almost  all schools  are operated  by the government.  However  in  recent times  there has  been  a   steady  increase   in the  number of Privately  ran  schools.  These  schools  generally  specialize in  English.  For  every person  schooling  up to  the  elementary school  is  compulsory. The elementary schooling  age  is  9 years while at  the international  level  the compulsory schooling age  is   15 or  16.

According the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (2005) the literacy rate of Myanmar stands at 89.7%.  the literacy  rate  among the male  are 93.7% while  the literacy rate  among  their female  counterpart  is  lesser than that – about 86.2%. However there is a dispute  over the accuracy of the  literacy rate provided  in that  statistics.  The government  of  Myanmar  allocates a low budget  for  the education department.  In  the  schools  of Myanmar English is  taught  as  a second language from kindergarten.