Accountability and (mis)trust in education systems: Private supplementary tutoring and the ineffectiveness of regulation in Myanmar

Abstract

Private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, has been viewed by many families around the world as a necessary complement to schooling. The present paper focuses on Myanmar, and draws on questionnaire and interview data from secondary school students, teachers, principals, parents and other stakeholders. Parents displayed institutional mistrust in their perception of inadequacy of schooling to meet their children’s needs. Organisational and interpersonal mistrust were also evident. The matters of mistrust relate to the theme of accountability in education, which requires systems for regulation and monitoring. The regulations on tutoring in Myanmar were widely ignored and were arguably worse than useless. The paper is grounded in the Myanmar context, but has considerable insights for the wider literature.