In the 2022-2023 academic year, UWS is supporting 196 teachers (75% recruited from the local community) and running 72 schools across Shan State. This is empowering 4,600 future changemakers with the skills to create a more sustainable future.

Rebuilding education systems

Even prior to Covid-19, schools were already severely under-resourced and cultural and linguistic divides (over 135 languages are spoken) limited access to education. But in the last two years, the number of children out of school across the country has more than doubled. In the townships of the Shan State where UWS operates, literacy rates are as low as 35% and 1 in 3 children have no access to a classroom at all. Sometimes the only person who can speak the national language (and the language of the national education system) is the village leader.

To move forward, more than 33,000 new teachers are needed to fill teacher shortages in schools nationwide.

Targeting education shortfalls

UWS is partnering with communities in the Shan State to rebuild the education system and provide life changing access to primary education. Our work starts with building schools and Community Learning Sites that meet national construction standards. We then partner with local education authorities and communities to recruit and train teachers who speak the local language of the children they teach. Together, these actions start to fill the shortfalls in education provision in rural areas and help communities build a new roadmap for the future.