July Monthly Seminar_Zoom Meeting


Education Challenges in Myanmar and the Outlook

Australia Myanmar Institute invites you to a scheduled Zoom meeting

Date: July 31, 2023 (Monday)  

Duration: 1 hour

Time: 06:00 – 07:00 PM AEST Time (14:30-15:30 Myanmar/Yangon Time)

Join Zoom Meeting: please click here

Meeting ID: 5506154368

Passcode: 12345 

Dr Khaing Phyu Htut is an education specialist with more than 20 years’ professional experience in Myanmar education sectors: state, private, international NGOs, ethnic and monastic. She is currently the Education Adviser for the UK’s FCDO (Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office), the British Embassy, Myanmar. She represents the UK as a national advisor at education discussions and planning at the EDPG (Education Development Partners Group) of Myanmar and related subgroups. She leads the UK’s education projects on ethnic and complementary education systems and facilitates the delivery of global education funds in Myanmar. Prior to FCDO, she worked in various roles at the Ministry of Education and the British Council.  She regularly engages in international, regional and local education research and teacher support networks within her personal capacity. She is participating in this particular AMI activity as a research fellow of ANU/UM (Australia National University and University of Melbourne).

 Prof Joseph Lo Bianco, AM, FAHAis Professor Emeritus in Language and Literacy Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. He is an inaugural member and Secretary of the Australia Myanmar Institute,  Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and current International Fellow and Vice-President. For many years he has worked with UNESCO and UNICEF in South and Southeast Asia on multilingual education, indigenous rights and access to education, literacy, girls education, and multiculturalism. He designed and managed the UNICEF Language, Education and Social Cohesion Initiative in Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, and Thailand which resulted in several advances for ethnic rights in the countries and extended to the preparation of a Peace Building National Language Policy in Myanmar. A climax of this was the first Myanmar conference on multilingual policy, held at the University of Mandalay in 2016 with 350 delegates and a national summit at Naypyidaw hosted by the First Lady (Daw Su Su Lwin), Minister for Education, and Minister for Ethnic Affairs. Under UNESCO he has conducted Asia-wide policy workshops for senior policy officers and ministers of education across the Asia Pacific.  He has supported the NUG language education policy process as member of its education advisory board.   He was author of the National Policy on Languages in Australia in 1987, widely regarded as the first multilingual comprehensive rights-based language policy. He has more than 140 publications on language, policy, and planning, language education, literacy, culture, and identity.

Questions and Answers will follow the presentations.

***NOTE: Zoom can work very well, but it poses difficulties for people with a poor internet connection. So, people from Myanmar (or elsewhere) who might have a poor internet connection or low bandwidth should turn off the video mode and listen to the seminar. You may be able to switch on the video from time to time just to see who is speaking, but definitely don’t use the video mode if you wish to speak yourself.  You can also pose questions using the chat function.  The whole seminar will be uploaded later on the AMI website and Facebook page.