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 to these factors, the system was put under further strain when Myanmar faced COVID as well as the political uncertainty. Rural areas in particular face greater challenges, 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 teachers are not even paid, and they 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 are often left 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 tend to make use of whatever available space. These places are 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 put a strain on these schools.

The above 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 as long as they can, as it can ignite and fuel the children’s passion to learn, making a world of difference in the lives of kids.