MNEC facing a shortage of qualified teachers due to limited salary rates

July 14, 2020

HURFOM: The Mon National Education Committee (MNEC) has a limited budget that provides a small salary to its school teachers. As a result, education activists have noted the MNEC is facing great difficulties appointing qualified teachers for Mon national schools.

International donors to the MNEC have limited support for teachers’ salaries. Each teacher receives only 60,000 Kyat a month. In some regions where local donors make additional contributions, a school teacher may receive a salary of about 100,000 Kyat/month.

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With such limited funding many school teachers are not willing to take on this employment.

The MNEC has had to find other bargaining points to recruit teachers. This includes negotiating about student criterion, such as only accepting those who have recently passed their matriculation exams or university students taking distance education programs.

“High-quality teachers want higher salaries, but we can pay only a small amount so we can’t appoint them. Not having enough teachers also impacts the education of the students. The root cause is that we can’t pay high salaries,” said an activist from Pa Nga village, Thanbyuzayat Township.

A shortage of qualified teachers will likely reduce the percentage of high school students who will pass their studies in the coming years. In the 2018-19 academic year, there were 114 matriculation students from Mon national schools and only 11 passed their exams. The pass percentage rate was just 9.65.

“This (academic) year there has been no improvement (to increase salary budgets). We all have tried our best but there is no support. The biggest problem is that we don’t have high-quality school teachers. Salary rate limitations have made things difficult,” said Nai Min Aung Zay, the Director of MNEC.

The MNEC has three basic education high schools, and all are cooperating with the Department of Basic Education under the Ministry of Education.

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