According to Khin Maung Kyi et al. (2000:145), the primary enrolment ratio is high. Nevertheless, primary education faces two main problems: there are not enough schools (the numbers range from one school for five villages to one school for 25 villages in the border regions); and there is a high drop-out rate, estimated to be about 34 per cent. The authors also point out the high repetition rate in rural and urban areas. UNESCO statistics are more positive: net enrolment rates at the primary level are 100 per cent for girls and 98 per cent for boys; at secondary level, the figures dropped to 43 per cent for both genders in 2005, with 91 per cent of all children completing primary education (UNESCO statistics web site 2005). This is in stark contrast with the report from the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 1995 that states that about only 27 per cent of all children completed five years of primary schooling and only 1.8 per cent of those who entered primary school completed secondary school (UNICEF 1995).
Another set of figures on Burmese education (Achilles 2005) cited net attendance in primary schools at 82 per cent for both genders (from 1998 to 2002) and the number of students who reached class five at 60 per cent officially and unofficially, based on surveys, at 78 per cent (for 1997–2003). Only 41 per cent of boys and 38 per cent of girls (from 1998–2002), however, made it into secondary school. Anonymous interviews in Yangon with an education charity confirmed the high drop-out rates, explaining that children showed up for the first school day and that statistics were based on this, but that as soon as a few days into the school year children, especially in rural areas, stopped attending. In part, such drop-out rates are the result of the high direct costs of sending children to school (such as buying books and uniforms). In rural areas, this is compounded by the high opportunity cost for parents who need their children’s help working. Although schooling is free in principle, parents are expected to contribute to the financing of education, as state expenditure on education as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) is decreasing (Kyi et al. 2000:147). Those who cannot afford to attend state schools go to monastic schools or forgo their education altogether. Monastic schools were outlawed in 1962 during the socialist period and were allowed to return only in 1993. Today, however, 1500 monastic schools have been recognised by the government, catering for 93 000 children (Achilles 2005). In some cases, the building is provided by the State but parents have to pool their funds to pay for a teacher; this is especially the case in remote areas (Lorch 2007).
Jasmin Lorch has written about how community-based groups and especially monasteries have come to fill the void for poorer sections of society. She also focuses on the role played by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in putting together informal education programs (Lorch 2007). Her paper, however, does not discuss the recent growing urban trend of private education, which caters to the middle and upper classes.