High school enrolment fees will be abolished in the next academic year, the government has announced. The move follows the introduction of universal free primary and middle school education in recent years.
The change from 2015-16 means high school students will also not have to pay registration fees or buy textbooks, Minister for the President’s Office U Soe Thein said.
“In 2015, no students will have to pay any kinds of fees,” he said.
The plan was confirmed by U Khin Maung Htwe, deputy director of the Department of Educational Planning and Training.
“We are planning, together with the Ministry of Education and the government, to give a free education system to all education levels in the basic education sector. We plan to provide enough textbooks and notebooks to the secondary school students,” he said.
The basic education school system consists of five years of primary, four years of lower secondary and two years of upper secondary education.
“Schools have been instructed not to ask for any kinds of fee from parents enrolling their children. Parents can report to the ministry if a school asks for the fee,” he added.
Primary schools were made free in 2010-2011 and middle schools followed in 2013-14. The government spent K7 billion making middle school free, while the change at high school level is expected to cost K5 billion.
There are seven million students at middle school level and 2.5 million at high school level, according to the Department of Educational Planning and Training.
The decision is likely to reduce the proportion of children who drop out of school for economic reasons.
One of the major UN Millennium Development Goals is to achieve universal primary education by mid-2015, meaning that almost every child in the world, boys and girls alike, goes to primary school.
UNDP reported in 2013 that Myanmar’s net enrolment rate in primary schools was 88 percent, but that only 75pc of pupils starting Grade 1 reach their final year of primary schooling.
The decline is attributed to households being unable to pay enrolment fees and for school uniforms and textbooks.
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