Education for Peace and Development--Elementary Schools for Myanmar
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Indepth Articles
[Sep. 05, 2007]
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Community participation is the crucial point of EPD. Not only does it generate a sense of ownership, but because of the way that the program is run, whatever the village contributes becomes an investment toward the school's sustainability. For the construction of a school, a pre-determined amount of foundation support is set aside. The village must work within the confines of this budget to build the school. However, any monies left over at the end can then be used by the community for the second facet of the program: income-generating projects to make the school a self-sustaining entity. The importance of this facet cannot be overstated since, once the school is completed, the community is on its own regarding building maintenance and the support of teaching staff. For this reason, communities volunteer much of the labor needed, and generally finance twenty to thirty percent of the school's construction. A school costs between 1.5 and 2 million yen to build, and in a developing country, this twenty to thirty percent amounts to a large sum of money.
A school built by The Nippon Foundation
The use of this money is then determined by the community, and income generating projects have turned out to be as diverse as the terrain that the villages are built on. For example, one village has built a rice mill, charging both villagers and outsiders for its use. Revenues from the mill have not only taken care of the school and teacher, but have provided enough for the village to build a small day-care center for children too small to go to school. Further, the manager of the mill is currently working on a biomass energy scheme that will make use of the rice husks left behind.
Another community on an inland lake has used the money to purchase a large boat, which farmers can rent in order to take their produce to market. Yet another place has built a water-powered electrical generator, which is used to provide electricity to homes in the area. Though the cost of simple electric lighting is only a fraction of the cost of the candles that people have traditionally used, the project is in the black.
While these kind of concrete results are vital to the creation of tomorrow's leaders, equally important is the way that they have brought communities together and taught them their own strengths and their potential for self-sufficiency. The program has brought such hope to the region that when it finished its five-year with the 100th school* in May of 2007, it was renewed for a second five-year, hundred-school installment. With plans to expand into the fields of agricultural and adult education, EPD promises to give Shan state a firm foundation for future prosperity.
* While The Nippon Foundation's funding provided for 100 schools, donations to the project through the foundation enabled the construction of two more schools, bringing the total to 102.
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