Human rights to be taught in primary schools

Human rights will now taught in primary schools across Myanmar in the 2017-18 academic year, the Myanmar Times reported.

The new addition to the curriculum is the result of an agreement between the Ministry of Education and the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC).

Since 2004-05, human rights have been taught from Grade 6 to Grade 11. In 2012, the curriculum was expanded to include students from Grade 4.

Experts from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will collaborate with the Myanmar Educational Research Bureau to write the new human rights curriculum, which starts with students in Grade 2. Their draft is scheduled to come out in August.

"Everybody should know about human rights and they need to be educated in many different ways," said U Aung Myo Min, director of Equality Myanmar.

"The government's curriculum is not starting very early so we are educated through trainings and seminars. It is actually good to teach it in schools. We welcome this plan."

The education minister was appreciative for the MNHRC's suggestion, the Commission's Vice President U Sit Myaing said, and will negotiate the human rights curriculum with the Myanmar Education Research Bureau.

"We offer teacher training because teachers need to know about how to teach human rights," he said.

The MNHRC will collect Grade 4 data in 2016 in order to prepare the Grade 2 curriculum for the Ministry of Education.

Date: 19 July 2016

Source: Myanmar Times