Education Meant Freedom

In a knowledge-based global economy, those without access to information won’t be able to participate. Lessons from Myanmar.

The latest word in international development is that technology will bring big changes to Myanmar. What does it mean for a country that has been closed off to the world for decades to suddenly reopen the floodgates to the information era?

I worked on a geology research field survey in Myanmar in November 2013. The research, led by Singapore-based scientists, focused on earthquake hazards. Collaborating with Burmese geologists, we hunted down active faults and examined Buddhist pagodas for evidence of past earthquake damage. As a research assistant, I was there to learn as much as possible. When I found myself in the back of a 4x4 vehicle with two of our Burmese collaborators, it seemed like a good time to learn.

As we cruised along a bumpy road following the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwaddy) River, I exchanged stories with two of my Burmese colleagues about our educational backgrounds in geology. My story of earning a four-year college degree in the United States was far less involved than what they had to share with me.

The sole female Burmese geologist on our trip was finishing her Master’s degree in her early 40's. When the men in our car started to tease her for being without a husband at that age, I changed the subject. I asked about our male colleague’s background in geology. Taking a deep breath to contain some vaguely unpleasant feeling, he began to explain why it took him 20 years to complete a bachelor’s degree.

In the late 1980s, he had worked as hard in school as any teen could in oppressive military-ruled Myanmar. His parents, who had little schooling, wanted him to go to university. He was thrilled to have passed the necessary exams to begin college and decided that he would become a geologist. Not long after his successful first year of college, he and fellow students got word that the university would be shut down without any promise of reopening. Though he couldn’t tell me the exact year, the school closing likely coincided with or followed Myanmar’s 1988 mass uprising against socialism and subsequent crackdown by the military government.

My friend had no choice but to return home to the “traditional work” of farming alongside his parents. He never lost hope, but he could have never known it would take two decades for him to accumulate enough coursework to complete his degree.

I had to interrupt at that point.

“How, after 20 years, did you still feel determined to finish school? So much had changed!” I pleaded in disbelief.

“What was the other option? Traditional work? No. Of course I was going to finish school,” was his nonchalant response.

Wary of another democratic mass uprising, shutting down schools and universities made it easier for Myanmar’s oppressive government to maintain control. Without access to information, people are less of a threat. It was not unusual for schools to shut down without warning. Students had grown used to the back and forth between having and not having them throughout the 25-year socialist military rule. Much of an entire generation in Myanmar gave up on formal education, which made the two sitting in the car with me that much more remarkable.

I was still curious, in light of the major sociopolitical issues facing Myanmar, why my friends had chosen geology specifically. Since I knew they were unlikely to ever leave Myanmar (it is very difficult for citizens to gain permission to exit the country), I wondered what drew them to a field that often requires scientists to travel. They explained that they simply wanted “to know about the world.” Education meant freedom.

Working alongside these two determined individuals powerfully reinforced my understanding of the importance of education and its role in social issues. The personal educational struggles and triumphs of my friends in Myanmar illustrate universal truths about the power of education for all. If today’s information age has truly created a knowledge-based society, those who lack access to information and knowledge cannot participate. This linkage carries implications for technology, educators, academic publishing, and international development — it suggests that, now more than ever, education supported by access to a dynamic global body of knowledge is a fundamental human right.

References:

Min Zin and Brian Joseph. “The Democrats’ Opportunity,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2012.