'Help us build a new Myanmar' - Online Burma Library

Comment
September 17 - 23, 2012
By Dr Nyi Win Hman
A UNIVERSITY is a
community of teachers and
scholars who both impart
knowledge as well as extend
it by inquiry and research.
Acquiring and searching for
knowledge is the business of
higher education. Knowledge
constitutes one of the main
sources of power and
prosperity in the world and
the business of knowledge is
as dynamic and competitive
as any other business.
Health and education
are also the backbone of
development, especially
for developing countries.
Unfortunately, however,
Myanmar’s entire education
system, from primary
to tertiary levels, has
deteriorated to the lowest
imaginable standards over
the past half a century.
Reforming and redeveloping
our universities and the wider
higher education sector, in
particular, is going to be one
of our greatest challenges –
one that will require great
insight, vision, competence,
integrity and goodwill, apart
from a tremendous amount
of material resources.
There is a Myanmar saying
– often disregarded or only
paid lip service – that says we
need to be “able as well as good
people” (lu taw, lu kaung).
Possessing only ability or
capability is not sufficient. In
encouraging the development
of our country, we will also
have to bring our work ethic
and professional conduct
into line with international
standards.
The first step in the reform
process should be to critically
and exhaustively review
the current state of higher
education. We should also
thoroughly review the status
and function of international
higher education. Is the level
of knowledge, experience
and expertise of some of the
available higher education
experts inside the country
adequate to undertake
this task on their own?
International consultation
and assistance should also
be sought. We need to be
clear on what assistance
and support is required and
what is available from the
international community,
including organisations such
as UNESCO.
We need to demolish
the basic structure and
organisation of the system
that has been in place for the
past half century.
Many fundamental issues
related to higher education
need to be tackled. They
relate to issues such as
governance, entry standards
and systems of funding,
accreditation, staffing and
resources. Also important is
the structure, organisation
and format of delivery of
“teaching-learning” (T-L)
activities and assessment. It
can be said that we inherited
our higher education system
from the British. Many
higher education systems
in the developing as well as
developed countries are also
essentially based on the same
system. It may be better
for us to continue with the
British system rather than
change and make the task
at hand more difficult and
complicated.
In many developing
and developed countries,
great value is attached
to higher education as a
means of achieving success
in life. Fairness, equity and
transparency are inseparable
in the process of acquiring and
delivering higher education.
The system of “T-L” delivery
is structured so that higher
education opportunities
exist for all socioeconomic
strata, including those
in employment (usually
through part-time delivery)
and those with a physical
or mental disability. In
Myanmar, I feel that we
also need to fundamentally
change the way we conduct
“T-L” activities from the
authoritarian “top down”
mode of a teacher delivering
a lecture to students who
receive it passively. Instead,
students should be nurtured to
adopt a mature, independent,
and interactive participation
in the process. The system of
lectures and a single, final
examination is obsolete.
Instead, various components
such as tutorial/practical
presentations, essays and
other assignments should
constitute a large percentage
to determine success.
The other important
aspect of the university is
the quality of academic staff,
their work, career structure
and advancement. We need
to remove the antiquated
and retrogressive system of
career advancement based
purely on seniority that is
in place. We must realise
that the academic staff and
universities with the highest
international standing
are those that undertake
high quality research and
have high publication
productivity. As a result,
some universities specialise
in conducting research rather
than teaching.
Research is going to be one
of the most difficult areas to
develop as there has been
more or less a complete
isolation and disconnection
from the world of learning
for 50 years. Many of the
overseas trained and qualified
staff are getting on in age.
Some disciplines have been
discriminated against and
as a result overseas training
opportunities were minimal
or limited.
The Myanmar language
expression for this is khar
pyat dei (the human torso
had been cut from the trunk).
The standard of “T-L” had
deteriorated to the lowest
level. The academic system
was also pressured to
confer many sub-standard
postgraduate degrees,
including doctorates. We may
need to consider whether it is
worthwhile to reintegrate all
2
the MyanMar tiMes
ASEAN woes to return in November
AsiAn Focus
InsIde Cover
with
Roger Mitton
IT brings only sorrow to recall the
July meeting of foreign ministers
of ASEAN in Phnom Penh.
The ill-begotten gathering
ended in such disarray that
for the first time in almost
half a century the region’s
top diplomats could not even
agree on the wording of a final
communiqué.
Like naughty children in a
nursery, they kept bickering to
the bitter end and then ran home
crying that it was all the other
person’s fault.
While the shameful episode
reflected most badly on
Cambodia, the association’s chair
this year, it also laid bare an
astonishing degree of disunity
among the 10 members.
And that is causing many
in the region to worry that an
even worse debacle may ensue
at the full leaders’ meeting in
November.
Eighteen heads of government
are scheduled to descend on
Phnom Penh for the 21 st ASEAN
Summit and the 7 th East Asia
Summit from November 18 to 20.
If you live in Phnom Penh it
may be a good time to consider
taking a holiday, for rest
assured the capital is going to be
horrendously locked down during
those days.
But traffic snarl-ups and
security hassles aside, what
many fear is another nasty verbal
altercation over sovereignty
claims in the South China Sea.
This one would not just involve
ASEAN members, but also the
leaders of China, which claims
virtually the entire sea, and the
United States, which staunchly
backs the multilateral approach
of the association’s claimants.
Speaking in Jakarta on
September 3, US Secretary of
Time to review the state
of our higher education
State Hillary Clinton urged
Southeast Asian nations to forge
a united front to secure a peaceful
resolution with Beijing over the
maritime disputes.
“We believe very strongly that
no party should take any steps
that would increase tensions or
do anything that would be viewed
as coercive or intimidating to
advance their territorial claims,”
she said.
Naturally, Beijing, which
has been gun-boating around
the waters aggressively this
year, and which favours dealing
bilaterally with other claimants
rather than with any “united
front”, responded in kind.
Xinhua, its official news
agency, berated Washington for
meddling in these matters and
for adopting a sinophobic stance
on the sovereignty disputes.
“US politicians, who
preposterously fancy they could
do gold-digging in China and rein
in China’s rise simultaneously,
should remember the old saying
that no one can have his cake and
eat it too,” thundered Xinhua.
It went on to demand that
the US should “stop its role as
a sneaky troublemaker sitting
behind some nations in the region
and pulling strings”.
Belatedly, and not a little
hypocritically, Clinton pleaded
for moderation, saying: “It is time
for diplomacy. We have the East
Asia Summit coming up.”
Well, yes, we do, but already
the train of verbal sabre-rattling
has left the station and others
have jumped aboard.
On September 6, Singapore’s
PM Lee Hsien Loong got into
pre-EAS mode by warning China
not to underestimate the US and
stressing that his country backs a
multilateral approach to solve the
territorial conflicts.
That stance, anathema to
Beijing, will further rile chairman
Cambodia, which, supported by
Laos, Myanmar and Thailand,
will back China and insist that
the disputes be solved bilaterally.
Children at a school in rural Myanmar. Pic: Kaung Htet
That will not deflect
Washington, of course. It
will support the multilateral
approach of claimants like the
Philippines and Vietnam – and it
will be backed by the remaining
ASEAN members, including
Indonesia.
In Jakarta last week, foreign
minister Marty Natalegawa
agreed with Clinton that an allencompassing
code of conduct for
the South China Sea must be set
up soon so that the sovereignty
disputes can be settled
peacefully.
Recalling the July ministerial
fiasco, Marty said: “Absent a code
of conduct, absent the diplomatic
process, we can be certain of more
incidents and tension for our
region.”
It is the prospect of more
“incidents and tension” caused
by the self-evident and palpably
deep-rooted disunity in ASEAN
that makes participants at the
coming November summit fear
for the worst.
major disciplines including
professional ones (such as
medicine and engineering)
into the university as
faculties rather than separate
institutions, as was the case
originally.
Nurturing and developing
the research capability of
academic staff will be a
slow and painful task, as
the scientific methodology
underpinning the disciplines
has suffered significantly.
From the inception of the
new system, academic staff
recruitment, selection and
advancement should be
based as much as possible on
research and/or productive
potential.
Lastly, we need to
systematically and thoroughly
plan to reform higher
education and most probably
conduct the implementation
in phases or stages.
There are just a few of
the specific issues that are
important for the reformation
of the universities and the
higher education system.
It is my hope that a critical
examination and intervention
will be undertaken to slowly
but painstakingly bring back
some semblance of progress
and development to higher
education in Myanmar.
(Dr Nyi Win Hman is a
former associate professor
of psychology at Yangon
University and Britishtrained
clinical psychologist
who has worked in Malaysia
and Australia and taught in
Singapore.)