Mizzima Editorial
Myanmar is in the midst of crisis in the wake of the 2021 military coup. But there is one particular sector that deserves attention – education.
The current crisis in the country has severely disrupted a whole generation. Speaking at a press conference in Bangkok this week, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Yangon Ms Susan Stevenson says she hopes USAID’S Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program for Myanmar students will go some way to preventing another “lost generation” of Myanmar youth.
Ms Stevenson highlighted the benefits of the five-year USAID program for more than 1,000 Myanmar students to provide higher education opportunities in southeast and south Asia, with an online component linked to the University of Arizona.
With a focus on Myanmar’s most marginalized and vulnerable people, this scholarship will foster academic excellence, strengthen the overall educational landscape of Myanmar, and empower the next generation of leaders to contribute meaningfully to their communities. In addition, there are also grants available.
Myanmar’s youth are in dire straits, with many higher education schemes halted or “running on empty” without teachers or professors – many of whom fled to join the so-called Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Further complicating the picture, the Myanmar junta’s recent conscription call-up for the military has prompted many of those students still studying to question whether they should be fleeing the country, or hiding out in so-called “safe areas” while the crisis continues.
Ms Stevenson worries there will be another “lost generation” of Myanmar youth.
“What struck me is the number of young people who should be in secondary school or universities who because of circumstances are now outside their formal education, uncertain about what their future might bring,” she told the press conference on 29 February. “And so the idea of having a scholarship to be able to study because they don’t necessarily feel that they can study at their existing institutions in Yangon, or in Myanmar in general, is very important.”
Ms Stevenson recalled the difficulties at the universities in the 1990s in Myanmar – in the wake of the earlier pro-democracy uprising – where students could take up to a decade to finish their graduate degree.
“Myanmar is very much in danger in confronting another lost generation without support,” she said.
The Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program through USAID is the United States government’s way of doing something to help, in particular helping the disadvantaged, and also helping the region as a whole with Myanmar students getting the opportunity to study in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the Philippines – helping Myanmar youth engage with their peers in south and southeast Asia.
Education is crucial to Myanmar’s future. And it is a crucial component of the well-being of Myanmar youth. The USAID program looks set to provide useful support for Myanmar youth in crisis.
