Education colleges will be upgraded to degree-level institutions this academic year, according to the Higher Education Department.

“We will run it as a pilot project at four colleges,” U Aung Aung Min, deputy director-general of the department, said late last month. The upgrade would happen in December.

The Ministry of Education has been trying to do this for the past few years.

According to the ministry, there are 23 education colleges nationwide that offer a 2-year diploma course, and after two years of training, students from education colleges are appointed as primary school teachers at basic education schools. Over 10,000 teachers are operating every year from education colleges.

“We need experienced and mature teachers to be primary school teachers. To become a primary school teacher, there must be two years of training,” U Aung Aung Min told the media on the side-lines of the National Education Strategy Plan presentation in Yangon on May 26.

Now curriculums have been redesigned and upgraded for degree courses based on the primary education curriculum and teacher competency standards.

The ministry has been trying to upgrade colleges to provide education degrees to improve the quality of teachers, according to comments of the Education Minister U Myo Thein Gyi, published in the state-owned media in March.

He said a master plan was being drawn up for the upgrade. Two more education colleges are under construction and will open in the coming academic year.

Haka Education College, the 24th in Myanmar, will open this December and Katha Education College, the 25th will open in the 2018-19 academic year.