On The Characteristics And Influence Of The British Colonial Period Myanmar Education

Basically, education of Myanmar can divide into three developing stages: the ancient education of feudal dynastic period, the modern education of colonial period and the contemporary education after independence. The ancient education is a kind of traditional temple education, it was the base of education of Myanmar. Later, Britain carried out the British educational system since Britain occupied Myanmar in 1885, meanwhile, the western culture filtered into Myanmar, education of Myanmar came into modern educational stage.Considering the Myanmar as the target of permanent servitude was the aim of British colonial government. Therefore, colonialist paid more attention to cultivate the inferior officer, clerk and statistician which could serve for colonialist. Hence, this kind of educational system had three characteristics: the springing up modern education and lopsided development; the government administrative pattern was focus on management, neglecting input; enslaving education paralleled with obscurantist education. The colonial education arose the two-faced influence: one was that established the base of contemporary education, the other was that limited the development of education; The colonialist just cultivated the "tool" which served for colonial domination and they trained the modern intelligentsia and promoted the national liberation movement.