Section 3 | RULES OF THE GAME GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS Official data claim that Myanmar had achieved gender parity of enrollment in both primary and secondary education by 2010, and there are more women than men at the tertiary level.211 These positive gains are tempered, however, by enrollment and completion figures that decrease drastically from primary to secondary school (see Table 2 below). Gender parity and high (over 80 percent) net enrollment through grade five indicates that integrating digital literacy into primary grades would be an effective strategy to prevent the gender digital divide from expanding, assuming that NESP-envisioned upgrades such as ICT equipment, connectivity, ICT-integrated pedagogy, and quality teacher training are realized countrywide. The extent to which this occurs is intertwined with the peace process as much as with available resources. Table 2: Student enrollment and completion rates, by sex, 2014–15. Male percent Female percent Primary enrollment 82 90 Primary (G5) completion 80 81 Middle (G9) completion 44 46 High (G11) completion 25 28 Any post-secondary 13 18 Source: Myanmar Ministry of Education, National Education Strategic Plan 2016–2021, 69. However, there was consensus among key informants and focus group respondents that, as a general rule, neither primary nor secondary government schools currently have ICT equipment, connectivity, or digital skills training for either teachers or students. Respondents of the global Executive Opinion Survey ranked Myanmar 135th out of 139 countries on the question “In your country, to what extent is the internet used in schools for learning purposes?”212 There are isolated “edtech” initiatives around the country, such as a pilot funded in 2013 by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to equip thirty high schools in Chin state213 and UNESCO’s Strengthening Pre-Service Teacher Education in Myanmar (STEM) Project, which began developing ICT capacity at Myanmar’s twenty-three education colleges in 2015.214 The blueprint for the NESP does envision plans for the systemic introduction of equipment, training, and integrated, technology-enabled administrative and pedagogical changes, but the focus is managerial efficiency, assessment capacity, and teacher training more than digital literacy as a core twenty-first-century skill.215 Even fewer teachers have been exposed to gender-responsive pedagogical methods. Indeed, a pilot project to introduce cloudMyanmar Ministry of Education, National Education Strategic Plan 2016–2021, 2016 World Economic Forum, Global Information Technology Report 2016. 213 Tupas, “Is Burma’s ‘Disconnectivity’ Deliberate?” 214 With support from the Australian government and in partnership with the Ministry of Education, UNESCO’s STEM project conducted an in-depth assessment of ICT infrastructure and its use in pre-service teacher training courses at Myanmar’s twenty-three education colleges (ECs) and developed a five-year framework for upgrading ICT capacity in ECs. In November 2016 UNESCO facilitated a five-day workshop for sixty-four ICT teacher-educators, who created more than thirty classroom activities tailored to fit each chapter of the ECs’ ICT curriculum. Each activity was tested to ensure it could be implemented successfully with resources available at all education colleges, even the most remote. 215 Myanmar Ministry of Education, National Education Strategic Plan 2016–2021; see discussion in section 3.1 above. 211 212 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 63