Away from their Families, Children in Myanmar Orphanages Struggle at School
One of the primary reasons that children are placed in orphanages in Myanmar is that families from remote ethnic minority communities believe that they will be able to access better education in Yangon. This weekend the results from the children’s matriculation (or ‘Grade 10’) exams were posted, allowing us to examine this view a little deeper.
Below are some results highlighting the average pass rates in Myanmar.
31.44% across Myanmar (national average)
19.59% Chin State
34.15% Sagaing Division
32.63% Yangon Division
7.69% among children in residential care institutions.*
The national average pass rate was just 31.44%, which is incredibly low, and highlights glaring issues in Myanmar’s education system. At 32.63%, the average pass rate in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, is only slightly higher. There are more schools and teachers in the city which probably factors into the overall result. Sagaing Division and Chin State are both areas that often send children away to live in orphanages in Yangon, with the hope that they will receive a better education. These results, however, show that the pass rate average is actually higher in Sagaing, at 34.15%. While results in Chin State were lower at 19.59%, the result was still much better than the results achieved by children from Chin State who had been sent away to Yangon for education.
This shockingly low pass rate of 7.69% shows that children in residential care institutions do much worse on average than if they had stayed in their home divisions. These children would have been much better off receiving an education in their home towns, where they could have stayed with their families and avoided years of institutionalisation.
There are multiple reasons that children in residential care institutions do not thrive in school.
Developmental Delays: Studies show that residential care affects the way that a child’s brain develops. This can cause cognitive and developmental delays, which leads to children struggling academically.
Attachment disorders: Children with Attachment disorders are more likely to suffer from academic problems, as well as a host of other issues.
Unmet emotional and social needs: While orphanages and children’s homes often meet children’s physical needs, the care is usually not holistic and fails to meet children’s emotional and social needs. With the support of a loving family, children often struggle at school.
Education is important, and as Myanmar continues to grow and develop our hope is to see education opportunities improve nationwide. For now though one thing remains clear, children who stay in their home communities have a much better chance of doing well at school than those who are sent away to live in children’s homes. Children belong in loving families!
*This figure is true of the residential care institutions that Kinnected Myanmar is engaging with, however we believe that similar figures can be seen across the country. Such findings are concurrent with global findings which show that children in institutional care struggle in school.