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Aiming to seek educational opportunities for the children with intellectual disabilities in cooperation with government departments and stakeholders, Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) cosponsored the first National Education conference for children with intellectual disabilities in Myanmar took place in Nay Pyi Taw on 23^rd Nov 2016.

It is an honor for Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) to support the conference through Myanmar Special Education Association (MSEA).

State Consellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spoke at the opening ceremony of the conference. Present at the ceremony were Vice-President U Henry Van Thio, Union Ministers, Nay Pyi Taw Council Chairman, deputy ministers, departmental heads and members of the Myanmar diplomatic corps. Also in attendance were resident representatives of UNs, NGOs, INGOs, children with intellectural disabilities, the disabled, organizations for the disabled and invited guests.

The conference intends to find out the ways for education access to children with intellectual disabilities.

 

Throughout one-day self-reliance seminar and two-day self-reliance workshop, (23) participants from (10) partner organizations; Karen Baptist Church (KBC), Mekiswe Myanmar, Hope for Shining Stars (S4SK), Nyein (Shalom) Foundation, Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY), Pyinnya Tazaung Association (PTZA), Language and Social Development Organization (LSDO), Karen Teacher Working Group/Eastern Burma Community Schooling (KTWG/EBCS), Church Based Education Northern Shan State and Karuna Mission Social Solidarity (KMSS) Pathein attended from 31^st Oct to 2^nd Nov 2016 in Yangon. The participants learned about Unrestricted Funding, Individual Donation Funding, Corporative Social Responsibility, Income Generation, and Organizational Fund Raising Workshop on 31^st Oct.

The program is intended to support the partner organizations internally to create and implement unrestricted fundraising strategic plan for every organization. After completing this program event, participants understood the difference between restricted and unrestricted funds, gained knowledge about individual private fund fundraising, corporate fundraising and commercial/income generating activities, knew and identified options for raising unrestricted funds and developed a fundraising plan.

During the two-day workshop, training topics were primarily based on basic concept of Self-reliance struggles: Options for increasing self-reliance for Myanmar Civil Society Organizations by Dave McClintock,  Models of INGO Sustainability: Balancing Restricted and Unrestricted Funding by  John Hailey, Strategies to Strengthen NGO Capacity in Resource Mobilization through Business Activities by PDA and UNAID, Market Opportunity Analysis by Gihan, Market Segmentation by Jerry Thomas and Guide for Nonprofit by S. Mark Taper Foundation.

A participatory way was mainly used. Participants have learned the logic of market segmentation, stakeholder analysis, strength and opportunity analysis, inspiring objective setting and action plan that they have to develop comprehensive self-reliance plan. Setting action plan is the essential part of the workshop and all participants were excited to shape their strategy.

Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) attended at the 5th International Conference on Language and Education: Sustainable Development through Multilingual Education (MLE) from 19 to 21 October 2016.

The conference took stock of recent developments in MLE policies and practices in the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on multilingual education in early childhood and primary education. It likewise looked at innovative pedagogies in the training of MLE teachers. It also examined challenges and lesson learned from the Education For All (EFA) experience and give opportunities for forward-looking discussions on both the role of language in achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and preserving a harmonious relationship between the global and local contexts. Over 300 people attended from 34 countries.

MEC participated as one of the presenters of a panel session titled ‘Learning from existing practices to strengthen the development and implementation of language-in-education policy for Myanmar’s diverse school community contexts ’. The panel shared the process and indicative findings of the research initiative “Community Language Contexts and MLE Practices in Myanmar”, led by MEC with the involvement of 13 partner organizations.

Under the technical guidance of MEC Senior Education Adviser, Amanda Seel, the presentations were led by MEC Education Manager, Htay Ei Ei, with three case studies presented: a Mon National School of Mon National Education Committee (MNEC), by Min Rot Ong Mon; a school in a Kachin Independence Organisation-controlled area, by L. Aung Sen; and a school supported by a Dai (Chin) literature and culture program by Salai Aung Ling.

All of our group had the opportunity to develop our knowledge in the MLE field and also networking in an area that will be one of the key supporting platforms for the MEC future strategy.

The brief information of our study can be found in the MLE Study Information Sheet.

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