UNESCO

The Myanmar education system is severely underfunded, receiving less than 2% of GDP. It ranked 92 of 93 countries in a global survey in 2020. In addition, the system was strained when Myanmar faced COVID as well as the political uncertainty.

Rural areas face a greater challenge, and rely heavily on community teachers to support the system. The teachers face a host of challenges as follows –

Finances – Teachers are not well paid in the good times and even worse during tough times. Some are not even paid and have to take on part time jobs to support themselves or their families while teaching to fulfil a passion of educating children.

Training – Most community teachers are not trained and are unsure if they are doing the right thing. They have to fend for themselves, lack feedback and operate in a small ecosystem with no opportunities to learn from experienced teachers, making it an isolating experience.

Facilities – Community schools make use of whatever available space and often not equipped with proper lighting, ventilation and equipment. In addition to these shortcomings, there are constant power outages and rising costs (data, electricity etc which puts a strain on these schools.

These factors have led to teachers “giving up” the passion of teaching. The objective of our communication material is to motivate and inspire teachers to overcome challenges to keep teaching as long as they possibly can. The creative focused on the key insight that while teachers face a host of daunting challenges, the emotional gratification and satisfaction from seeing a child learning and improving as a result from the teacher’s efforts is sometimes worth the trouble and stress. The communications urged teachers to keep on teaching the best and as long they can, as it can ignite and fuel the children’s passion to learn, making a world of difference to the lives of kids.

A range of videos was developed under the overall Big Idea with specific strategic push to encourage teachers to –

1. Adapt to needs via different teaching methods
2. Engage the community to help
3. Leverage online teaching platforms
4. Adapting to communities needs
5. Teach with patience and love

This ultra targeted campaign was not viewed by the public but it achieved the desired impact of motivating teachers and more importantly reminded them of their passion for teaching when viewed by community teachers.