Section 4 | HERE AND NOW Freed only in 2012 and 2013 under an amnesty, recent press coverage links Ne Win’s grandsons to companies (such as Omni Focus Co. Inc.) that are involved in banking, tourism, transportation, and construction projects, including electricity and solar power.270 While it appears their main interests now lie outside telecommunications, they will conceivably follow government plans to expand rural electrification and fixed-line broadband closely and potentially thwart efforts that threaten their bottom line. 4.3 Educators and Students Despite the institutional challenges they face, like systemic lack of ICT training, equipment, and connectivity (see section 3.3 above), educators (school and university administrators, teachers and professors, and occupational trainers) and students comprise an important stakeholder group. On the one hand, they represent enormous latent demand for general ICT access and skills that can, in theory, be systematically addressed countrywide through coordinated efforts to integrate ICTs and digital literacy into educator training and curricula. According to MoE data, there are roughly 9 million children and youth currently in government schools (51 percent of whom are female). The new Department of Alternative Education, INGOs, and CSOs serve another roughly 3.5 million out-of-school youth. CASE STUDY: Tech Age Teachers Tunisia In 2014, IREX and the Tunisian Ministry of Education’s National Center for Pedagogical Innovation and Research and the General Inspectorate for Pedagogy in Education launched the Tech Age Tunisia program. The collaborative initiative was designed to meet the Government’s goal to address skills gaps that contribute to the youth unemployment crisis. With financial support from the Dream Blue Foundation and technical assistance from IREX, in just two years more than 1,500 teachers—over 50% of them women—developed concrete technology, leadership, and professional skills to modernize their classrooms, streamline administration, and connect with other teachers. They also launched popular extracurricular Youth Tech Clubs for over 4,000 students—over 50% of them girls—aged 4-18 at primary and secondary schools in rural and urban areas. In addition, 40 specialist ICT teachers were prepared to deliver effective, practical, and relevant training to their colleagues, ensuring a sustainable ripple effect. The successful initiative was incorporated by the Ministry of Education into its National Dialogue process to identify priorities for reform in 2015 and beyond. On the other hand, educators are one of the main modes of reinforcing and transmitting norms that contribute to the gender digital divide. There is an extensive body of research that examines how educational systems—from curricular tracks to teachers’ behaviormanagement strategies—reinforce deeply held beliefs about differences in boys’ and girls’ needs, abilities, and eventual adult roles,271 and this is no less true in Myanmar (see section 2.2 above). In addition, educators’ ability to address the gender digital divide is hampered Kyaw Su Mon, “Ne Win’s Grandsons Propose Airport Upgrade in Shan State,” Irrawaddy, October 31, 2016. Elaine Unterhalter, “Measuring Gender Inequality and Equality in Education,” University College London, October 2015. 270 271 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 83