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.

    Learning at Home Program (LAHP) is for primary children to learn about different subjects including arts, ethnic culture and physical exercises. This has been run on facebook but will later move to the new platform. The program is monitored by trainers but teachers are volunteers.
As many people are on facebook, the Learning Platform we will create, will still connect to facebook so that users can find it easier and more accessible.

    Learning at Home Challenge : This challenge is to encourage parents and family members to spend more time with children in providing the learning opportunities. Parents will lead the lessons for their children and we provide rewards for those who can teach the most.

  Learning at Home Awards : The awards are part of Learning at Home program and challenge. This is to give awards to those parents and children who have been very active in our programs, who contribute back to the community and who won challenge award. Usually, this is led by the admin team with the support of trainers.

• To provide income-sources for young female entrepreneurs and teachers in rural areas
• To build a country wide network system to ease various supporting activities for children from low-income family
• To reach the children and adults from low-income household families (or) in the remote area where there is a lack of adequate transportation infrastructure
• To minimize the disruption in children’ learning journeys during specific circumstances.

In WSS method, baseline study, learning about schools and their community’s current situations and needs, using different checklists including Teacher Competency Standards Framework from Ministry of Education, play an important role because based on the baseline study, Saya Foundation will identify the gaps and needs together with the school stakeholders which include Parents, Teachers, Principals, Administrators, Community Members and Students. Those gaps and needs will guide Saya Foundation and the school stakeholders to plan on what we will need to support in which way. Then we will provide the supports needed throughout one academic year. In this way, we hope to help schools to be more participatory in thinking of their sustainability and development.
In 2019, Saya Foundation supported Ta-Ka-Tho-Mote-Oo Monastic School in Kalay and Sasana Hitakari Nunnery in Lashio. Then 2021, Saya Foundation extended to suport another two schools- Myo Oo San Monastic School in Kalay and Aye Mya Chan Thar Nunnery in Pyin Oo Lwin.

Saya Team Members have developed 4 Lesson Guide Books and 4 workbooks to help children in areas where internet access is not available by taking a reference from videos of Online Home Based- Learning Programs. The Books are published under the four major headings; these include
1. Learning to be Artistic at Home
2. Learning to do Crafts at Home
3. Learning to be Environmentally Friendly at Home
4. Brahmacariya Values for Primary Children