10.12.2006
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To Improve Local Education in Burma
_By Aung kyaw Soe
It is costly and difficult to get admission to good overseas colleges. The ideal situation will be college education locally and graduate/professional degree in overseas so that it will indirectly promote good reputation of college education in Burma.
But the sad thing is that Burmese students are studying at no name substandard private colleges in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore because they cannot get good college education locally. 20 years ago, no one will go and study in those colleges even with 50% scholarships as their certificates are worthless.
(Inya Lake near Rangoon Universities)
If quality undergraduate education can be provided inside Burma locally, people can save resources for their graduate education; and post-graduate scholarships are easier to get than undergraduate scholarships, and so it will be good for Burma.
The worst thing is if students who headed to overseas colleges are immature, they may not work hard, waste their time, slacking there, failed exams, drop out and pack their staff and go back Yangon; losses: time, money and ego for students, families and ...
The fact that all Burmese are rushing at passport control to leave Burma for working or studying in overseas; I think it will be very beneficial if someone could set up finishing schools, like Indian Software Giants Tata and Infosys are running to train their graduates to equip them to work in MNCs. The freshly minted engineers learnt English, team work, presentation and communication soft skills, and specific technical skills: C, C++ programming and Software Engineering skills for software engineers, Pro E and AutoCAD for Mechanical engineers and interviewing skills.
Those guys will be more or less ready at least in theory to compete with their peers in MNCs after staying 6 months to a year in finishing school after their college degrees. China has such finishing schools as well. This type of training will be very beneficial for Burmese engineers/professionals.
The second type of schools we need are preparation schools for GMAT, GRE, writting SOP (statement of purpose) and TOEFL or IELTS, MCAT or LCAT (medical or law schools). The trend is most of Burmese wants to study in overseas and we have only 100 to 150 students going into good graduate schools in Singapore like NUS, NTU, SMU or UniSim. The rest end up paying more for second class education since they don’t have chances to take GRE, GMAT, etc.. With good GRE, GMAT scores and good college grades they may win grad scholarships from overseas and they can get more opportunities beyond Singapore.
Therefore I wished we could upgrade the quality of local education soon, as well as those youths who can make it into good educational institutions will work their best so that no hard earned money of Burmese and time of Burmese youth will be wasted.
INDEX
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Finishing schools for engineering graduates suggested _ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/31/stories/2006103102301000.htm
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An example of such a school in India _ http://www.mkcl.org/Content.aspx?ID=39&ParentMenuID=39
(Photos: courtesy of Sar Su Yin)
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