Kids learn lessons about making mud at Yin Thway Eain Preschool in Bahan township. Pic: Aung Tun Win

CHILD development experts in Yangon have warned that pressuring kids to learn too much, too early can have damaging effects on their educational development.

“More and more parents want their kids to study Grade 1 lessons in nursery school,” said U Sit Myaing, the director general of the Department of Social Welfare, who has been authorised to examine and inspect nursery schools throughout the country.

Primary education in Myanmar starts in Grade 1 at the age of five years. Most nursery schools cater to children aged two to five.

“Businessmen take advantage of this market by running expensive, privately owned preschools. Unfortunately it is the children who are caught in between and become the victims,” he said.

He said research shows that forcing children to study too hard before primary school can be harmful to long-term mental development.

“Child development experts say that kids are capable of learning school lessons from the age of three years. If we start teaching them at that age they will try to follow but their brains become exhausted and overloaded,” he said.

“Parents are satisfied when they see that their children can write and read early. But they don’t realise that many early learners face difficulties when they reach higher education levels,” said U Sit Myaing. “Nursery schools can provide a foundation for later learning but they can also ruin their ability to learn effectively.”

He said surveys conducted by the department in 2003 and 2006 found that nursery schools in Yangon generally fall into one of four categories: those that focus on learning foreign languages, those that work on general child development, those that teach Grade 1 lessons and day care centres that do not teach anything.

The government introduced a nursery school curriculum in 1947, which the Department of Social Welfare and other ministries still use to teach preschool children. However, 80 percent of private schools ignore the guidelines and run according to their own rules, U Sit Myaing said.

“It is up to parents to create an environment for young children where they can learn at their own pace. Nursery schools should also provide such an environment. They should not be places where kids are forced to learn beyond their development level,” he said.

Because of this, nursery school teachers should have at least some child development training, he said.

Daw Soe Soe Khine, the head of the privately run Lin Yaung Chi preschool in Ahlone township, told The Myanmar Times that teachers are pressured by parents to teach Grade 1 lessons to children as young as three-and-a-half years.

“We have children at our school ranging in age from two to five years. In the first three months after they turn three-and-a-half years old, we teach them how to hold a pencil. Some are not able to hold a pencil tightly because their fingers are weak. If so, we have them strengthen their fingers by tearing sheets of paper into pieces,” she said.

She said she always warns parents against pushing their children to learn too much, too early but some refuse to accept her advice.

“I’ve had some parents give me wrong birthdates for their children so they can be taught lessons for older kids,” Daw Soe Soe Khine said.

She said another mistake parents make is asking their children what they learned on their first day of nursery school.

“On their first day children are more concerned with the fact that they are separated from their parents and are put into a new environment. But it’s important to give them time to get used to the school before we start teaching them nursery rhymes,” she said.

She said experience has taught her that children who are pressured by parents to learn too early end up disliking school and often experience other problems like sleeping difficulties.

According to statistics from the Department of Social Welfare, as of last month there were 65 nursery schools in Myanmar run by the department, 796 voluntary schools recognised by the department and more than 1000 private schools.

U Sit Myaing said most nursery schools, even the most well know, gave priority to making money rather than to the long-term mental, physical and moral development of the children who go there.

“It will take a long time to change the situation, which has been wrong for decades,” he said.