Preparing citizens for tomorrow’s Myanmar

By Anne-Cecile Vialle, Chief of the UNICEF Field Office for the South-East of Myanmar.

After thirty six years of service within the Ministry of Education, begun at the age of 18 in her native region Tanintharyi Division, Ms. Daw Myint Than still diffuses a vital energy and passion to her colleagues and students. For the past three years, working first as a head-teacher and now as the Township Education Officer, she has helped Thayetchaung township achieve the highest results in the Matriculation Exams at the regional level. Daw Myint Than is proud to add that her township scores first place in sport competitions, and that several students have obtained national prizes in academic and artistic competitions.

Daw Myint Than, Township Education Officer

Myanmar Armed Forces release a further 80 children

Transit Centre No. 1, Yangon: 24 November:

Wearing traditional Myanmar checkered lungyis and starched white shirts with rounded collars, the young people sit down in rows of chairs and wait for further instruction. Most of them sit quietly but some fidget nervously and shift in their seats, craning their necks forward to see how the ceremony is progressing. 

They are 80 children and young people, all once recruited and used in the Tatmadaw. It is their final roll call as they prepare to leave the armed forces, discharged on the grounds that they should never have been enlisted in the first place.

Australia, European Union, Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom and UNICEF Celebrate Children’s Right to Education

© UNICEF Myanmar 2012

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. 25 years ago today, the world made a promise to children: we would do everything in our power to protect and promote their rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard and to reach their full potential. These rights apply equally to every child, regardless of who they are or where they come from.