Karen State Education Assistance Group

1. Karen State Education Assistance Group KSEAG Narrative Report - October 2013

2. Table Of Contents • Map of Karen State/Myanmar • Brief Overview Of KSEAG Activities • Activities Implemented during July to October 2013. • Getting to know schools in Karen State/Myanmar. • Political Situation In Karen State and Education Assistance • Achievements during project reporting period. • Challenges during project reporting period. • Upcoming Activities

3. Brief Overview KSEAG Activities • Stated from July to August 2013, KSEAG Database Teams and Mobile Teacher Trainers (MTTs)/Area Teacher Trainers (ATTs) visited and monitored schools throughout Karen State/Myanmar. This trip was to visit and monitor every schools who received school materials from KSEAG that sent on February and March, at the same time conducted subjects methodology upgrade training, teacher skills training for teachers and capacity building training for local education leaders/school committees. • As we have done in the past years, to decrease confusions and to avoid overlap support issues we set up six cross check places. There were 1) Ta Keh Pu Village/Hsaw Hti township/Kler Lwee Htoo district 2) Day Bu Noh Village/Bu Tho Township/Mu Traw District 3) Kwee Lay Village/Billin Township/Doo Tha Htu District 4) Mae La camp/Thailand to meet with Pa-an District 5) Noh Poe camp/Thailand to meet with Dooplaya District and 6) Suan Phueng/Thailand to meet with Mergui-Tavoy district. • After cross checked school profiles KSEAG Database teams were busy with inputting school information into database. Student drawings , photos scanned and saved into computer. Moreover, teacher letters also translated to English version.

4. Activities Implemented during July – October 2013 1. Gathered school profile forms for the new year school 2013-14 database. Overall, in 2013-14 school academic year statistics, there were a total of 141623 students registered in the KSEAG database; 51.88% female, 48.12% male. There were a total of 6154 teachers taught in the schools, 78.59% female and 21.41% male. 2. Conducted capacity building training with local education leaders for 185 people. Training for school committees and teachers will be continued conduct in the next cycles. Management skills are required for the local education leaders and school committees to run the programs and activities. In this reasons, KSEAG is trying to prioritize as the secondary need for the communities.

5. 3. Met with district/township and village tract education leaders for cross checking school information. This meeting is not only to cross check school information but also conducting capacity building training as well. By doing this we save a lot of times and resources. At the same time we discussed about issues related to education. Many issues got solved in this meeting. 4. All the school information inputted into computer for database. It took one and half month to finish. The school data is very important so that we have to do it very carefully and go through very steps. Based on this database information, we are able to identify each school to whether should receive support from KSEAG as such teacher subsidy or school materials.

6. Getting to know more school in Karen State/Myanmar As you see in the information tables and graphics, schools and students number increased every year. The reasons of numbers increased because KSEAG has had built capacity and accountability to manage programs and more communities know about KSEAG better, moreover, KSEAG can access to do monitoring and evaluation.

7. Because of reasons mentioned above every year schools and students number has increased so that required more teachers. This 2013-14 academic year teachers increased to 10.3%.. You see in the information table that shows every year we increased teacher subsidy 500 bath each year. But this year we maintain supported teacher subsidy the same as last year 4500 THB and 120000 Kyats. As you will see in the chart, there are two types of teachers who teach in schools/Karen State. There are 32% of Govt' teachers teaching in Karen Schools and mostly nearby urban areas as we know as (Govt' administrative areas and Mixed Govt'-KNU administrative areas). Those teachers received only subsidy from Govt but not teaching materials.

8. Teachers and students in each district

9. Schools in lowland area and highland area Left hand photo is school in highland area and right is school in lowland area Students in lowland area and highland area Left hand photo is students in highland area and right is students in lowland area

10. Students playing games Students are happy to have sport equipments and school materials. Boys and girls are playing volleyball together in the wet field.

11. Political Situation in Karen State and Education Assistance Since a KNU’s delegation signed agreement of cease-fire with SPDC government on 12th January 2012, the situations were changed in both positive and negative. People in conflict affected-areas can move more freely without fear Govt' army. But many people still have feeling of fears when they meet with the Govt' army. The villagers in war affected-areas are very exciting to see the real peace move forward step by step in better way. As you well known about the situation in Myanmar and also follow very closely. Many international Aid, international agencies/donors bring development projects into Karen State especially in rural areas, this is very good and supportive but on the other hand it also create confusion among ourselves. It requires a lot community consultations, Community Based Organizations consultation and information sharing. This is create concerns and confusions in communities and or existing community based organizations. KSEAG and other education organizations key leaders are involving in all related to education reform workshops/meetings inside or Thai-Myanmar border line. We are trying to be part of education reform in the future of Myanmar education. Because of the reasons mentioned above, villagers can go village to another village easier. By having better safety, local education can access to more schools that they have never been before. The better situation give opportunity to more schools to submit their profile forms for support.

12. Achievements during reporting period • Due to the information provided above, the education leaders can visit or monitor more schools in conflict affected areas, and moreover, community schools can submit their profile for support to KSEAG. • We have built relationship with local education organization based inside to share information and as well as to join hand to decrease confusion in project areas. • This year KSEAG start to have supporting from other CBOs such as (KWO, KORD, CIDKP, KSNG) to do external monitoring & evaluation for us. This is very initiative activity that we never have done before. • Communities know more about KSEAG’s works and admire what KSEAG has done for the community education development. • KSEAG teams have improved knowledge of knowing community needs, management skills and be able to handle project’s activities as plans.

13. Challenges during project reporting period • Many new schools submitted their profiles for support this year, the increasing of schools, teachers students are requires higher financial resources. • Many INOGs and government projects come to support schools in our areas and they paid ten times salary higher than we provided. They paid 100,000 kyat = 4000 baht/per mother/teacher and we can only provided 10,000 kyat = 400 baht /per month/teacher. This was created big challenges for us and schools in mixed administrative areas and mixed teachers. • Many donors and government aid cut back from Thai/Myanmar border and now move their funds directly to inside Myanmar. This has big impact on not only KSEAG but all other organizations who based on Thai/Myanmar border. • KSEAG learns that is more difficult to identify school that received support from whom or how much because KSEAG's policy is to not support any school already received support from others even equal to KSEAG support or more.

14. Upcoming Activities • Last week of October to December, teacher subsidy distribution will be continued to all districts in Karen State as planned. • As every year, KSEAG will start discuss with school materials supported donor after as soon as finish teacher subsidy distribution activity. • This year KSEAG will again negotiate with school materials supported donor to more purchasing school materials in Myanmar as it be more convenient to handle. • KSEAG narrative report –December 2013 will be sent to all KSEAG supporters.