The President’s Office of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, announced today that Dr Khin Sann Yi has been appointed as the new Union Minister for Education. Dr Khin Sann Yi, formerly Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and prior to that Deputy Rector of the Yangon Institute of Economics, will be the second woman in history to serve as a Minister within the Myanmar Government.

Her nomination has been put forward Dr Kan Zaw, the Union Minister of National Planning and Economic Development, after the death of her predecessor Dr Mya Aye. The appointment was generally welcome, both in terms of increasing the number of women in senior government positions, as well for her experience and academic background.
Dr Khin Sann Yi was a tutor at a regional college from 1987 to 2012 and then Deputy Rector at the Yangon Institute of Economics, until she was appointed, in April 2012, to the post of Deputy Minister at the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, Accounting and Auditing, a Master’s of Commerce in Trade and Marketing from Yangon Institute of Economics, and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Göttingen in Germany.
As one would expect, there is already some debate about the suitability of her appointment, with some questioning her expertise beyond the purely academics, and hence her ability to implement major public education policy and reform.

Dr Myo Myint, who has been Acting Minister in the interim period between Dr Mya Aye’s demise and Dr Khin Sann Yi’s appointment, returns to his previously held position of Deputy Minister of Education. Reports the Irrawaddy.