Early Childhood Education in Myanmar

Myanmar’s early childhood education sector was established during the late 1990s, with public preschools first becoming available in 2001. Sector growth was initially slow but had begun to pick up before the military coup in 2021. By 2018, about 8.5% of 3-to-5-year-olds were attending preschool. An Early Childhood Care and Development Law and a Multisectoral Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, adopted in 2014, laid the conceptual foundations for creating a holistic, inclusive, and family-involving approach to early childhood education. However, the sector has been constrained by inadequate coordination and insufficient public investment. Its needs have also tended to be overlooked because of the higher priority attached to redeveloping the school sector. Political instability following the military coup has placed the sector under a cloud. Its future is fragile and unpredictable. Long-term needs include better public financial support, more and better professional development for teachers and caregivers, and an increase in the sector’s reach into the rural areas of Myanmar.