National Literacy Policies/Myanmar

Literacy Rate	Illiterate Population
84.7 %	4.9 million

source :

2000 figures estimated by UNESCO Institute for Statistics, July 2002

National Literacy Goals

Definition of a Literate Person

A person is literate when he or she is able:

-	to read and understand simple messages
-	to write simple messages
-	to do simple calculations necessary in daily life

Name of National Literacy Agency

Myanmar Educational Research Bureau (MERB)
Myanmar Literacy Resource Centre

"Literacy Facts and Figures" of Myanmar

Structure of National Literacy Agency

COMMITTEES FOR EDUCATION FOR ALL
AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

Number of NGOs working in the field of literacy	15
Number of literacy classes in most recent year	...
Number of classroom hours designated to achieve basic literacy	100-130

National Policies and Strategies

National Policies on Literacy / Non-formal Education in Latest Policy Document on Education

To form Myanmar learning society by
-	improving access to and quality of primary education in formal education sector.
-	providing literacy and CE to out-of-school population through NFE programmes.
-	making general education open and diversified by emphasizing NFE modes of education.

Current Literacy / Non-formal Education Objectives /Strategies

a.	to raise present literacy rate of 91.5% to 95.75% by 2005 and then to 100% by the year 2015.
b.	to provide continuing education programmes through community learning centres.
c.	to establish separate NFE Department under the Ministry of Education.
d.	to carry out school-based quality improvement prgrammes.

Lessons Learned from Past Literacy Programmes and Activities

a.	Political will is an essential for the success of a programme.
b.	Literacy programme should be integrated with CE programme especially income generating programmes to be more effective and attractive to the target population.
c.	Finding key persons (local wisdom) is an essential step for the NFE programme especially to ensure wise implementation by the committee.
d.	Community participation is needed for success of literacy and CE programmes.
e.	Literacy should be the basic tool for life-long learning.

[Updated in April 2003]

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