The Ministry of Education plans to promote ethnic language teaching assistants in public schools to permanent teachers if they have bachelor’s degrees, the Department of Ethnic Literature and Culture said.

The teaching assistants were hired by the Department of Basic Education to improve the learning process and efficiency in basic education and to cut the dropout rate in ethnic regions.

In December 2017, the ministry hired nearly 5200 ethnic language teaching assistants from part-time volunteer teachers at monthly salaries of K30,000 (US$20).

“The Ministry of Education approved the promotion to permanent teachers of those who have bachelor’s degrees after training,” U Win Naing, deputy director general of the Department of Ethnic Literature and Culture, said on Tuesday. With the approval of the regional parliaments, the ministry began the teaching of ethnic languages in basic education schools in 2013 to preserve and develop ethnic languages, literature and cultures.