The Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) supported a total of 21 participants from its partner organizations to attend the Mother Tongue Based – Multi Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) Conference on the theme of Inclusion, Mobility and Multilingual Education from the 24th to the 26th of September.
The Conference aimed to explore how an open and inclusive multilingual approach to education can create links between policy, practice and research to advance participation, access, and learning for children and adults from marginalized and mobile communities.
MEC organized and moderated one panel presentation on the theme “Experiences from Ethnic Basic Education Providers in Myanmar” which featured speakers from the Mon National Education Committee (MNEC), Northern Shan State, Kachin Baptist Union Church Based Education (SJN-CBE), the Kachin Education Foundation (KEF) and the Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD). The panelists discussed their experiences in Myanmar and shared views on why MTB-MLE approaches to education are important for ethnic based organizations. The panelists also expressed their views on why they believe it is important for ethnic based education systems to be recognized by the Myanmar Ministry of Education.
As well as providing a platform for the partner organizations to share their own views on MTB-MLE, they were also able to gain extensive experience of MTB-MLE approaches being taken across the Asia-Pacific region. Sessions throughout the conference highlighted how closer collaboration with the government in countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines has resulted in positive learning for children involved in MTB-MLE programs.
myanmareducationconsortium.org 