THE Ministry of Education and United Nations Children’s Fund collaborated last month to offer a training course for senior education officials to promote child-friendly school concepts and teaching techniques.

The training course, held from August 21 to 31 at Sedona Hotel, was attended by senior officials from education departments under the ministry as well as state- and division-level education officers.

The training course covered child rights, concepts and processes of child-friendly schools, suitable teaching methods, appropriate discipline for children and techniques for improving community participation.

U Win Aung, the project officer of UNICEF’s Education Section, said the participating officials are required to pass on the information they were provided to township-level education officers and teachers.

The concept of child-friendly schools, mainly aimed at primary-level students, was introduced to Myanmar in 2001 under the Quality Basic Education Project conducted by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNICEF.

The main aims of child-friendly schools are to promote opportunities for all school-age children to enrol in school and finish their primary academic years, and to provide quality education for them in the process.

“Schools were approached to be child-friendly from five angles: inclusiveness for all children, no gender bias, teaching effectiveness, physically and mentally healthy school environment and encouragement to participate,” U Win Aung said.

He said teachers at child-friendly schools have been taught not to punish children by hitting them, as such treatment can be mentally and physically harmful and can affect a child’s learning development.

The child-friendly approach has helped increase school enrolment to some extent but there is still difficulty retaining some children until they finish their primary education, he said.

“Reducing the dropout rate is not easy because many factors are involved, including the economic situations of the students’ families,” he said.

The child-friendly program is under use in about 10,000 schools in 94 township throughout the country.

U Win Aung said the basic infrastructure of these schools had developed but teaching methods had not changed much.

“Most teachers are still using traditional teaching methods in which students are expected to memorise lessons to get high exam marks instead of using their creative and critical abilities,” he said.

“Teachers are reluctant to abandon methods they have used for many years. It takes time for them to adjust their methods,” he said.