2. A lack of platform for educators in different religious institutions to come and discuss about teaching religious texts creatively. Hierarchy among monks and religious leaders lead the educators/teachers to not question back and even though they have frustration towards teaching and learning methods, they keep quiet.

3. Religious educators not using interactive, critical and dialogue strategies in their lessons which weaken the students in understanding the religious texts critically. Especially in Myanmar Buddhist context, monks were trained mainly through method of lecture and student monks are asked to memorize the religious texts then take exams to test their understanding.

The project brought 44 educators from three different religious institutions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, to learn about education topics. In the training program, we have 1) Digital literacy and safe use of internet, 2) Child rights and child protection, 3) Trauma Healing, 4) Dialogue in the Classroom, 5) Child Psychology, 6) Educational Philosophies and Approaches, 7) Lesson Planning and Action Planning. There were a competency checklist that Saya drafted to do pre and post assessments which determined the learning of Participants.

Technical Assistance: Participants will be provided 4 trainings/workshops during the project period. The topics are as follows: 1) Buddhist Approach to Teaching, 2) Nurturing Critical Thinking in Children, 3) Reading Strategies and 4) Dialogue in the Classroom. All the trainings are to support participants’ critical thinking skills and the effectiveness of their lessons in their classrooms. Buddhist Approach to Teaching training will more focus on their understanding on Buddhism and Education while we help them build their skills in effective teaching. Second training will focus more on critical thinking skills and helping their students to improve their critical thinking skills. Throughout the training, we will provide some critical issues in the community for them to think and discuss. The third training will focus more on the practice of critical thinking, Buddhism and educational knowledge, in which we will use Buddhist literatures and social articles to read critically and teach critically. The last training will be on running dialogues on critical, contradictory and current conditions in our society/Buddhism. All four trainings will be connected to one another, building their knowledge, skills and perspectives. Technical assistance will be provided in the form of workshop in addition to one-on-one mentoring sessions. Saya Foundation’s trainers and other training experts will lead the training program.

Resource Assistance: Training materials and learning resources will be provided to them. Learning resources include books, posters for the classrooms, lesson plans and learning aids. The books will be varied from children books to reference books for them to use during and after the training. Readings required for the training will be printed out and send along with the resources so that they will be able to access them without needing the internet.

Financial Assistance: Some participants may need financial support for phone bills and fibre internet set up. We will provide some financial assistance to the participants so that they can attend the program and implement what they learnt without needing to worry about finances.

      In this year, training was conducted online from June 2021 to Sep 2021. There were 16 nuns (Myanmar Buddhist women) attended from 15 different Nunnesary in Sagaing, Mandalay, Yangon, Shan, and Bago. They were trained by 3 Trainers and 1 Guest speaker under 4 Modules (Buddhist Approach to teaching, Nurturing Critical Thinking, Reading Strategies and Dialogue in the Classroom).

The training will provide teaching strategies that are relevant to Buddhist’s culture and 21st century requirements. At the same time, teachers will be exposed to different religious institutions and meet teachers from other religions. There will be three levels (Level 1 – Introductory, Level 2 – Experiential and Level 3 – Practical). Only people finished level 1 can attend level 2. The training will be provided in collaboration with Dhamma Gangha Pali College. Food, accommodation, hall rental, stationeries and some transportation fees will need to be paid.

Diversity – to understand about the value of differences and to celebrate diversity
Equity – Equality – to know more about the meaning of equity and equality, to know the differences between equity and equality
Bias, Stereotyping and Pre-jaundice – To know more about the bias that we have and overcome the bias, stereotypes and pre-jaundice that we have
Identity – To understand different identities that we have, to know about the identity of others
Racism, Discrimination – To learn more about issues with racism and discrimination, to learn about the value of different races
Non-discrimination – To learn different ways to avoid discrimination
Mutual Respect – To learn more about mutual respect
Commonalities in Religions and Races – To understand more about differences and commonalities in religions and races

2. A lack of platform for educators in different religious institutions to come and discuss about teaching religious texts creatively. Hierarchy among monks and religious leaders lead the educators/teachers to not question back and even though they have frustration towards teaching and learning methods, they keep quiet.

3. Religious educators not using interactive, critical and dialogue strategies in their lessons which weaken the students in understanding the religious texts critically. Especially in Myanmar Buddhist context, monks were trained mainly through method of lecture and student monks are asked to memorize the religious texts then take exams to test their understanding.

The project brought 44 educators from three different religious institutions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, to learn about education topics. In the training program, we have 1) Digital literacy and safe use of internet, 2) Child rights and child protection, 3) Trauma Healing, 4) Dialogue in the Classroom, 5) Child Psychology, 6) Educational Philosophies and Approaches, 7) Lesson Planning and Action Planning. There were a competency checklist that Saya drafted to do pre and post assessments which determined the learning of Participants.

Technical Assistance: Participants will be provided 4 trainings/workshops during the project period. The topics are as follows: 1) Buddhist Approach to Teaching, 2) Nurturing Critical Thinking in Children, 3) Reading Strategies and 4) Dialogue in the Classroom. All the trainings are to support participants’ critical thinking skills and the effectiveness of their lessons in their classrooms. Buddhist Approach to Teaching training will more focus on their understanding on Buddhism and Education while we help them build their skills in effective teaching. Second training will focus more on critical thinking skills and helping their students to improve their critical thinking skills. Throughout the training, we will provide some critical issues in the community for them to think and discuss. The third training will focus more on the practice of critical thinking, Buddhism and educational knowledge, in which we will use Buddhist literatures and social articles to read critically and teach critically. The last training will be on running dialogues on critical, contradictory and current conditions in our society/Buddhism. All four trainings will be connected to one another, building their knowledge, skills and perspectives. Technical assistance will be provided in the form of workshop in addition to one-on-one mentoring sessions. Saya Foundation’s trainers and other training experts will lead the training program.

Resource Assistance: Training materials and learning resources will be provided to them. Learning resources include books, posters for the classrooms, lesson plans and learning aids. The books will be varied from children books to reference books for them to use during and after the training. Readings required for the training will be printed out and send along with the resources so that they will be able to access them without needing the internet.

Financial Assistance: Some participants may need financial support for phone bills and fibre internet set up. We will provide some financial assistance to the participants so that they can attend the program and implement what they learnt without needing to worry about finances.

      In this year, training was conducted online from June 2021 to Sep 2021. There were 16 nuns (Myanmar Buddhist women) attended from 15 different Nunnesary in Sagaing, Mandalay, Yangon, Shan, and Bago. They were trained by 3 Trainers and 1 Guest speaker under 4 Modules (Buddhist Approach to teaching, Nurturing Critical Thinking, Reading Strategies and Dialogue in the Classroom).

The training will provide teaching strategies that are relevant to Buddhist’s culture and 21st century requirements. At the same time, teachers will be exposed to different religious institutions and meet teachers from other religions. There will be three levels (Level 1 – Introductory, Level 2 – Experiential and Level 3 – Practical). Only people finished level 1 can attend level 2. The training will be provided in collaboration with Dhamma Gangha Pali College. Food, accommodation, hall rental, stationeries and some transportation fees will need to be paid.

Diversity – to understand about the value of differences and to celebrate diversity
Equity – Equality – to know more about the meaning of equity and equality, to know the differences between equity and equality
Bias, Stereotyping and Pre-jaundice – To know more about the bias that we have and overcome the bias, stereotypes and pre-jaundice that we have
Identity – To understand different identities that we have, to know about the identity of others
Racism, Discrimination – To learn more about issues with racism and discrimination, to learn about the value of different races
Non-discrimination – To learn different ways to avoid discrimination
Mutual Respect – To learn more about mutual respect
Commonalities in Religions and Races – To understand more about differences and commonalities in religions and races

1. Religious teachers having insufficient understanding on other religion’s teaching and many having mis-understandings towards other religious groups which can be observed from mis-information spread across by religious leaders about other religion to their followers.

2. A lack of platform for educators in different religious institutions to come and discuss about teaching religious texts creatively. Hierarchy among monks and religious leaders lead the educators/teachers to not question back and even though they have frustration towards teaching and learning methods, they keep quiet.

3. Religious educators not using interactive, critical and dialogue strategies in their lessons which weaken the students in understanding the religious texts critically. Especially in Myanmar Buddhist context, monks were trained mainly through method of lecture and student monks are asked to memorize the religious texts then take exams to test their understanding.

The project brought 44 educators from three different religious institutions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, to learn about education topics. In the training program, we have 1) Digital literacy and safe use of internet, 2) Child rights and child protection, 3) Trauma Healing, 4) Dialogue in the Classroom, 5) Child Psychology, 6) Educational Philosophies and Approaches, 7) Lesson Planning and Action Planning. There were a competency checklist that Saya drafted to do pre and post assessments which determined the learning of Participants.

Technical Assistance: Participants will be provided 4 trainings/workshops during the project period. The topics are as follows: 1) Buddhist Approach to Teaching, 2) Nurturing Critical Thinking in Children, 3) Reading Strategies and 4) Dialogue in the Classroom. All the trainings are to support participants’ critical thinking skills and the effectiveness of their lessons in their classrooms. Buddhist Approach to Teaching training will more focus on their understanding on Buddhism and Education while we help them build their skills in effective teaching. Second training will focus more on critical thinking skills and helping their students to improve their critical thinking skills. Throughout the training, we will provide some critical issues in the community for them to think and discuss. The third training will focus more on the practice of critical thinking, Buddhism and educational knowledge, in which we will use Buddhist literatures and social articles to read critically and teach critically. The last training will be on running dialogues on critical, contradictory and current conditions in our society/Buddhism. All four trainings will be connected to one another, building their knowledge, skills and perspectives. Technical assistance will be provided in the form of workshop in addition to one-on-one mentoring sessions. Saya Foundation’s trainers and other training experts will lead the training program.

Resource Assistance: Training materials and learning resources will be provided to them. Learning resources include books, posters for the classrooms, lesson plans and learning aids. The books will be varied from children books to reference books for them to use during and after the training. Readings required for the training will be printed out and send along with the resources so that they will be able to access them without needing the internet.

Financial Assistance: Some participants may need financial support for phone bills and fibre internet set up. We will provide some financial assistance to the participants so that they can attend the program and implement what they learnt without needing to worry about finances.

      In this year, training was conducted online from June 2021 to Sep 2021. There were 16 nuns (Myanmar Buddhist women) attended from 15 different Nunnesary in Sagaing, Mandalay, Yangon, Shan, and Bago. They were trained by 3 Trainers and 1 Guest speaker under 4 Modules (Buddhist Approach to teaching, Nurturing Critical Thinking, Reading Strategies and Dialogue in the Classroom).

The training will provide teaching strategies that are relevant to Buddhist’s culture and 21st century requirements. At the same time, teachers will be exposed to different religious institutions and meet teachers from other religions. There will be three levels (Level 1 – Introductory, Level 2 – Experiential and Level 3 – Practical). Only people finished level 1 can attend level 2. The training will be provided in collaboration with Dhamma Gangha Pali College. Food, accommodation, hall rental, stationeries and some transportation fees will need to be paid.