These days, I am having some interests in the field of education. I have got many friends working in the education industry. Whenever we hang out on weekends, the topics of discussions are around educational change in Myanmar. But then again, as you know, I can't speak without having some numbers under my belt.
There is a famous hypothesis among Myanmar folks. "Myanmar University Education is getting so diluted. Anyone can buy a university degree and so every young folk has one. There is no value or quality to it anymore. A university graduate can only work as a pedicab-driver."
I don't want to comment about the quality since I am no expert in the field of education. What interests me is the quantity of university graduates. How many are there? What percentage of population is a university graduate? Where do they live? So on.
Of course, the first thing I had to do was to browse into Myanmar Census 2014, especially Table D. I have noticed a few potential errors, such as some 13 years old finishing high school or some 15-16 years old finishing university. It's fine, I guess. The error rate is small. It may as well be true, too. Myanmar parents are notorious for lying the kids' age to send them to school early.
The indicator to look for is education attainment. This indicator usually looks among the population with the age of 25 years or older; in other words, the generation who could have finished college or university.
In Myanmar, there are 27 million people with the age of 25 years or older. Among them, only about 2.3 million people have at least one university degree. So, the percentage of population with at least a university degree is about 9%. That's quite small, to be honest. So where did all these rumors about tens of millions of university graduates in Myanmar come from? I have got no idea. So I figure, what about high school graduates??? We may be high on that figure, at least. I got more disappointed. Only 19% of population above the age of 25 finished high school
It's not that bad if you think from a different angle. We can say that almost half of high school graduates finish university. That's definitely a good story. On the other hand, the reason why we have such low number of university graduates may lie in secondary education as well, since population finishing high school is very low to begin with.
Let me put into perspective with different countries. In America or Singapore, many high school graduates do not go onto college or university. Instead, they go to vocational training schools. In America, university education attainment is 32% while secondary education attainment is 88%. In Singapore, university education attainment is 28% while secondary education attainment is 70%.
See? We, Myanmars, are more hardworking than Americans or Singaporeans. Only 1 out of 3 high school graduates finished university in America or Singapore. One out of 2 high school graduates finished university in Myanmar. (This is sarcasm, by the way!!!)
Although there are such differences in percentages of university graduates and high school graduates in America and Singapore, these countries get a lot of vocational programs. In Myanmar, only 1% of the population has vocational diplomas after finishing high school.
I have also looked into details.
1. Age versus University Degree
Overall, 9% of population with the age of 25 years and older have at least a university degree. But when we disaggregate by the age group, the younger folks have higher percentages. Maybe the university education is getting easier like the rumors say, and hence, it's easier for younger folks to get a degree. Maybe parents are valuing university education more, so they are sending more of their kids through college. Maybe the government has opened up many colleges or universities in the past 2 decades, so more younger folks have better access.
2. State Region versus University Degree
I live in Yangon, among the sea of young university graduates. Maybe that's where the rumors start. Everywhere I see is a university graduate. But as it turns out, even Yangon State Region doesn't have that many university graduates. It's still the highest in the country. It's also no surprise that Naypyitaw and Mandalay are among the highest. What surprised me was Kachin, Kayah and Mon following very closely behind Mandalay. I am not discriminating, but seriously, Kachin is a war zone. It takes such dedication for parents to send their kids to university. Hats off to them. Ayarwaddy is another surprise. It's among the least educated state regions despite the relatively better-off living situation there.
3. Townships versus University Degree
I am just curious about how many townships in Myanmar are below or above the average. So, I ended up making a distribution graph. Wow...major surprise coming up. According to the Census, Myanmar has 413 townships, of which 348 townships have less than 10% university graduates among their population. This is scary. It's 84% of country's geographical coverage. The mode for percentages of university graduates within each township is even lower at 5%.
Among the 65 townships with the university education attainment more than 10%, 33 are in Yangon Division. It's not a good thing for a country that the majority of educated people are located only in one spot.
4. Gender and University Degree
So guess what is coming up? 56% of university graduates are women. I know what you are thinking now. Myanmar has more women than men. So I look at the percentages of university graduates among each gender group. About 8.2% of male population has at least a university degree while about 9.1% of female population has at least a university degree.
Just kidding. These 2 percentages aren't statistically significant. So we are equal. I just want to get on your nerves. =)
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