Project Objectives

| Home | Committee | Events | Articles | Gallery | Contacts | Links | 

About US

"Pyinnya Tazaung" means "The Light of Education" in Burmese. Education is a light that brings about knowledge and understanding of the world to us.

According to United Nations Human Development Programme (UNDP) report in 2001, of the 4.6 billion people in developing countries, more than 850 million are illiterate and nearly 325 million boys and girls are out of school.

An English education is the ticket to one's future, without which one will be left out of today's global economy, thereby being deprived of a better livelihood. Many of today's younger generation are denied access to a basic education because of poverty, insufficient resources and more importantly a shortage of teachers competent in the English language.

Our Objectives

Project Pyinnya Tazaung is a long-term Human Development Project organized by the NUSSU Alliance for Human Development Projects to increase the access of schooling children to an English-based education in developing countries through:

1.    Upgrading of infrastructure and facilities of existing schools.

2.    Collection of English textbooks, reading and other educational materials in Singapore for our overseas partners.

3.    Setting up of libraries and reading rooms in schools and community learning centers.

4.    Sending of teachers to train teachers in developing countries for a period of 1 - 2 months.

5.    Establishing and implementing joint educational programmes with the Education Ministries.

Currently, our project is starting out in Myanmar. We hope to extend our project to other countries in the region in the future.

Our Partners in Myanmar

Myanmar Education Research Bureau (MERB)

426, Pyay Road, University PO Yangon, Myanmar.

The MERB is a department under the Ministry of Education of Myanmar which is responsible for increasing the access of the rural population to an English-based non-formal education. The MERB runs schools, community centers and education programmes in the whole of Myanmar. 

We hope to support the MERB's efforts in education through:

1.    Provision of English reading materials to the selected schools under its charge.

2.    Upgrading of infrastructure and facilities of existing schools.

3.    Sending of volunteer students and teachers from Singapore to train Burmese teachers in English.

Mahasantisukha English Training School

Natchaung Quarter, Tarmway Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

The Mahasantisukha runs English classes for school children, young working adults and monks. 

We hope to support its efforts in education through:

1.    Setting up of a mini-library at its premises.

2.    Organizing annual cultural exchange programmes between Singapore and Burmese students. 

The schools in Kyaukpadaung Township and Letpabya village in central Myanmar

High School in Letpabya is actually a subset or branch from the 2 high schools in KBG township. Currently, it provides education for three levels, the primary, middle and high schools. There are 234 in the primary grade, 646 in the middle school and 155 in the high school which is that of sec three and sec four in Singapore. From there on, pupils are sent to colleges and university. The students mainly study English, Maths, Science, Burmese and the system is similar to that of Singapore and their daily activity is from 8.30 am to 3.30pm. However, they lack practical demostration. In terms of English, they are more interested in comprehension, conversation and grammar and the level may be slightly different from Singapore. In terms of the students profile, the schools serves people from mountainous areas and therefore they may take hours to reach the schools. The students are eager to learn but sometimes their financial problems restrict them from progressing further from high school. As for textbooks, it is compulsory to have textbook which they get from the seniors so it is usually not a problem.

The School structure consists of four buildings, one for each level and a staff building. There are about 23 teaching staff, 5 SAT, 13 JAJ and 5 PAT and a headmistress. There are also three non teaching staff running the school. The school compound is generally well run, though in the building housing the primary school children has been infested by termites recently. Also, the primary school is made of a long classroom where 3 or 4 classes will proceed simultaneously without partitions. The school is also currently building a new two storey building for their high school students who are currently studying in thatched classroom. This building is complete but still lacks doors and furniture. The school also has a library separate from all the buildings but a lot of its books have been stolen. In addition, the school also has a large open field available as a helipad and for activities.

In addition to the current school work, the teachers also try to incorporate health education like keeping themselves clean. However, they do not have a fixed activity to promote health care.

Our Plan in Myanmar, 2002 - 2003

1.    September 2002: Collection of books and reading materials in NUS and Bishan Community Club. Find out more at: Events.

2.    October - December 2002: Collection of books from various national libraries in Singapore and recruiting volunteer students and teachers willing to teach in Myanmar from NUS, NTU and NIE.

3.    December 2002: One-week exploratory trip to Myanmar to set up the mini-library at Mahasantisuka and to establish the teaching programme with the MERB.

4.    May - July 2003: We hope to send 2 - 4 teachers from Singapore to Myanmar to teach at the schools under the MERB.

5.    June 2003: Annual project trip to Myanmar - Yangon, Kyautan and Kyaukpadaung Townships.

Project Proposal of June trip to the Myanmar Embassy

Introduction

We are a group of students from National University of Singapore who are committed to performing community services in overseas countries. During a recent social visit to Myanmar, we visited Kyaukpadaung (KBG) township and one of the nearby villages called Letpabya.

We found the villagers especially hospitable and developed a keen interest in the future of the village. We managed to visit the schools there and briefly talked to the school authority regarding the educational system in the village.

We will be interested to complement the government efforts in providing a rewarding and fulfilling education to the local children. As such, we have given this matter a great deal of thought and put together a proposal to work on the government�s educational programs, which are already in place.

Background information of the village

Letpabya is one of the many villages surrounding the township of Kyaukpadaung. Kyaukpadaung is found about 400 miles north of Yangon in Mandalay division. It is accessible mainly by traveling for about 15 hours on bus coaches from Yangon.

Letpabya is another one hour ride away from KBG along the road to the city of Mandalay. It is a village consisting of about 570 households and a population of about 10,000. The main economical activity of the people is that of agriculture and trading of food to the travelers. The village also has its own schools, one station hospital and a police station

Project Objectives

     1.    We will like to hold live demonstrations of science experiments based on principles of simple physics, biology and chemistry. We will teach the students how to conduct simple laboratory experiments. In this way we hope that it will increase their understanding and appreciation of science. We are targeting the High School level students.

     2.      The school is currently constructing a new block. We hope to contribute to the completion of the building in cash or in kind.

     3.    We wish to further upgrade the furniture of the school to provide even more comfort for the students there.

     4.    In order to ease the financial burden of most students, we wish to buy exercise books and educational aids to them.

5.    We have a pool of neutral English reading material such as Readers� Digest, National Geographic, LadyBirds series story books and other educational books which we hope to donate to the students.

Operational Plan

1.    Date and Time: 20^th � 30^th June, 2003

2.    Venue: Kyaukpadaung township, Myanmar

3.    Concept of Plans: The ground crew in Singapore will focus on researching on relevant science experiments and other non-textbooks subject that will be useful to the Myanmar students. They will also concentrate on various fund raising projects to cover the cost of the project. The operational team will go to Myanmar and conduct the following or ensure that the following plans are executed.

                                                   I.      Science Camp � A series of camps will be held in the school compound within 8am to 5pm. We hope to set up a series of experimental stations on the field or classrooms. The schoolteacher in each class and a translator will help to explain the experiments while the Singapore volunteers will conduct the experiments. Each session will take up 45 minutes to 1.5 Hours, depending on the nature and the level of experiments. (Please refer to Annex 1 for full details of the Science camp)

                                                 II.      Provision of Doors � We will pay for the cost of engaging Burmese carpenters and material cost to construct 6 doors. Part of fund raised will be allocated to this budget. At the same time we will source for a carpenter.

                                                III.      Provision of Benches � Part of the funds will be allocated to this part of the project. We will source for a contractor to get the benches done. 

                                             IV.      Provision of exercise books and educational aids� These materials will be purchased in Myanmar and will be transported to the village. We will then distribute the books according to the needs of the children. Textbooks of different level will be passed on to future batches.

                                               V.      Provision of old English Material � We have a pool of old English material such as Ladybird series, Readers digests and National Geographic magazines. We hope to donate these reading materials to the students.

4.    Publicity � The group has already held exhibitions in National University of Singapore to increase awareness of others of this project.

5.    Marketing/Fundraising- The group is going to take part in the fundraising events held in NUS by selling handicraft as fundraising means. We will seek monetary donations or sponsorships from private firms for project and expenses cost.

6.    Lodging and food: In Yangon, we have sourced out monastery in the area willing to provide accommodation. We have also some possible accommodation in the house of our host in Myanmar, the family of a Burmese student studying in NUS currently. A merchant running a restaurant in the village has kindly offered our food.

7.    Transport: We have explored possibility of traveling via the coach service to the township of KBG.  In the township, we can then convert to renting a small bus to take care of our travel to the village. 

8.    Supporting agencies �  Singapore International Foundation and National University of Singapore.

Science Camp 2003 -Proposed schedule and plan

1.    Concept Plan: A series of camps will be held in the school compound between 8-4pm. There will be 6 teams of volunteers conducting experiments at the same time in the different stations. Each High school class consisting of 25 students will view and try out experiments in each booth. Upon finishing one experiment the different groups will rotate to another booth and so on. At the end of the camp all high school students will be exposed to all experiments.

2.    Venue: Classrooms and field of the school.

3.    Time: 3-5 slots of 45 minutes each a day.

4.    Information of the school: The school is called Basic Education High School (Branch) Letpabya Village, Kyaukpadaung Township, Mandalay Division, Union of Myanmar. It serves Primary, Middle and High school level. The age group of the students ranges from 5-16. There are 20 teachers and 1046 students (234 Primary students; 646 Middle level; 156 High school level) in the school.

5.    People involved: Local schoolteachers, 2 Burmese students of National University of Singapore, 2 Kyaukpadaung Youths, 3 students from Institute of medicine and 20 Singapore students.

6.    Logistics: All material will be purchased at the township. Some special equipment, educational charts and show cards are brought over from Singapore.

7.    Schedule: We will create a timetable, which will be coordinated with the teachers over there by mail upon approval granted. This will enable the teachers to leave some free slots for Singapore students to come in and conduct experiments without sudden disruption of lessons. We will take up 3-5 periods a day in the school.

8.    Syllabus � Plants, Animals and insects, Energy, Light and Chemical reactions.

9.    Experiments � Please refer to Annex 1B for a detailed list of experiments.

10.    Material needed � Show cards, educational charts, Microscope, periscope, glass prisms, solar panels, beans, plants, pails, foodstuff, light bulbs, detergent, baking soda, glass containers, cotton wool, water, cards, mirrors and so on.

Copyright � NVAC Overseas Service 2003