Save the Children trains mobile teachers to improve childhood education in Myanmar

Due to civil war and political tension, 75,000 children of the Karen people in Myanmar have missed out on an education, Theirworld report shows. But a new project, created by Save the Children, has been training people to become mobile teachers to educate children in their homes in the hopes of boosting numeracy and literacy rates around the region.

A Save the Children spokesperson said:

“The training took three days in May 2018. KTWG’s mobile teacher trainers are now in the field travelling to 157 training sites to provide training to parents and community members… The training aims to reach 7019 parents in 216 villages living in Karen areas of Southeast Myanmar.”

The Karen are an ethnic group from Burma (Myanmar), many of whom fled Burma due to religious and ethnic persecution by the government. According to the report, Karen people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Southeast Asia and the conflict has been described as one of the world's longest-running civil wars.

Save the Children has been working with the Karen Teachers' Work Group and Karen Education Department to try to improve education for children. To improve the literacy rate of children, more than 1000 schools have received new books and other donated school supplies.

In July, UNICEF said it was working to support populations displaced by the continued fighting, specifically those in the northern regions. An estimated 319,000 children were in need of humanitarian assistance at that time. The report states that:

“UNICEF remains extremely concerned about the protection of civilians in these areas - especially children."

Together, Save the Children, the Karen Teachers' Work Group, and Karen Education Department have trained 60 people to become mobile teacher trainers in Karen areas, with the aim of promoting home learning as well as literacy in schools.

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Photo credit: Karen Teacher Working Group