Can Burmese 'peacocks' regain their glory?

By Myint Oo. For half a century the people of Myanmar have lived under dictatorship in a veritable police state. The country has been isolated and devastated, with its entire infrastructure, including its health and education sectors, destroyed.
With the emergence in the past two years of a quasi-civilian government, a process of reform has begun. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to enter parliament. US-Myanmar relations improved. United States President Barack Obama made a historic visit to Yangon, and gave a speech at the Yangon University Convocation Hall. “I came here because of my respect for this university…it must reclaim its greatness because the future of this country will be determined by the education of its youth,” he said.
Following Obama’s stated commitment to advancing education in Myanmar, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has launched an initiative involving the participation of nine US institutions in a strategic planning process aimed at developing partnerships with universities in Myanmar and assisting the rebuilding of higher education capacity in the country. Myanmar citizens have welcomed the IIE’s initiative and interpreted its announcement in the following way: "The eagles are coming to dance with the peacocks." the ‘dancing peacock’ is the emblem of Yangon University.
It is hoped that the launch of the International Academic Partnership Programme (IAPP) in Myanmar will help to reclaim the greatness of Myanmar’s universities and bring about the potential emergence of US-standard universities. During the 1950s, Yangon University was one of the top institutions in Asia. Now Myanmar's universities have been demoted and lag behind, ranked between 12,000 and 20,000 worldwide, according to the Webometrics Ranking Web of Universities. Read more...