Dar Eh

Young people’s technology proficient

Saw Dar Eh

15th June 2022

Word count: 2087

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Abstract

Many years after the military took control of Myanmar, it restricted the use of technology in schools and

other areas. However, in 2011, the system of government was changing; consequently, people had more

rights to use electronic supplies and other technical things. Furthermore, in 2015, people increased their

use of and study of technology such as the Internet, digital literacy, and government support for e-

government. However, there are many steps left to improve technology for young people in Myanmar.

This paper uses a quantitative approach. It gave a questionnaire to ten people and asked about whether

young people in Myanmar can use technology proficiently or not.

According to these findings, the majority of people believe Myanmar is beginning to develop in terms of

education. But they did not think that technology was completely developed yet and the Internet and

government support. Thus, it shows that Myanmar’s government still needs to do more work to improve

the technology education system and help the young people improve their technical skills.

KEYWORDS: Myanmar, government, technology, e-government, digital literacy, Internet, development.

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1. Introduction

Even though people have started to use technology globally, young people in Myanmar have been far

away from technology. The military took control of almost every branch of the government system.

While the military took power, they restricted the law and prohibited the freedom of people. However,

after 2011 the government system is starting to change. As a result, people have accessed more

technology.

Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how people in Myanmar are increasingly using

technology in their daily lives because the political system is changing. Moreover, people have more

rights to do business and buy things from other nations. To research this, the paper will contain some

questionnaires with students in Myanmar and compare their opinions of technology in the past and

today.

2. Literature Review

First, the Internet is the most important part of technology’s development in a country. Even Myanmar

has access to mobile phone and internet its connection are still very poor (Chang, 2013). The internet

prices increased more and the speed of the internet also slowed down (Haffner, 2022). Myanmar had

55.02 million people in 2022, but 54.1 percent of the population did not use the Internet (Kemp, 2022).

On the other hand, not everyone agrees. In 2018, the Internet penetration has increased significantly

and the number of Internet subscribers has increased from 130,000 to 13 million in 2016 (Shadrach,

2018). But, when looking at the reality of the current situation, it is limited to the population in the

country. So, it is clear that Haffner has more reality in the current situation. Therefore, the number of

Internet users in Myanmar increases every year, but the quality of the Internet needs to be improved.

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Second, the Myanmar government lacks support in the development of technology education and

collaboration with other nations. Myanmar's governments have little support for e-governance and it

ranked about 175th out of 193 countries (Nam, Cham, & Halili, 2015). In contrast, other people do not

agree with that. According to the organization of World Education in Thailand and Myanmar, they try to

help the young people who drop out of school in Myanmar and train them to develop their IT skills for

modern work (THAILAND.WORLDED, 2018). But, when looking at their comments in connection with the

fact that they limited the population in Myanmar, It is clear that their statements do not match with the

reality because there is limited population to apply the results more widely to Myanmar. Thus, the

government of Myanmar is still missing the chance to reform the quality of technology education.

Third, digital literacy is a very important part of the development of technology. Myanmar has improved

its mobile network connectivity and Internet access, but it has yet to improve its digital literacy (Bevec,

2020). Moreover, according to Telenor Digital School, 78% of Myanmar internet consumers have low

digital literacy skills (TELENOR, n.d.). Yet, not everyone agrees. According to the company website of

VERO, Myanmar is living in the technological era (Win, 2017). However, Win describes only a general

situation, but Bevec uses the statistics, and it is easy to verify. It is clear that Bevec has a better-

supported position. Therefore, one area that young people in Myanmar forget to learn is digital literacy

skills.

3. Methodology

This research about whether young people in Myanmar proficient in Technology is using a quantitative

approach; specifically, the study has utilized a questionnaire methodology. This study selected ten

participants to take part. The participants were from different places. Most participants live in diverse

locations in Myanmar and then were given an online questionnaire to complete. They were from a

different ethnic group in Myanmar; however, most of them are of Karen ethnicity. The participants were

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chosen from the students in Brighter Futures Pathways. Participants were selected randomly, as the first

10 people to answer the Survey Monkey was invited to take part. One possible source of error is that all

the participants are from the same school and have had similar educational experiences. A second issue

is that the sample size is very small, so the results will have limited reliability.

The statements all related to the young people’s technology proficiency and specifically in the areas of

Internet quality, government support, and digital literacy. Participants were asked to rate their level of

agreement using a 5-point Leichter scale, from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Some questions were

positive about each sub-topic and others were negative. This was to check for any response bias in the

participants. Therefore, it would be expected that the participants would give opposite answers. This

mixture should also eliminate any reliability errors caused by experimenter bias, as the participants will

not be aware of the experimenter’s personal views about young people’s technical proficiency.

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4. Results

This study looked at three areas: Internet, government support and digital literacy. The results for each

major group are shown below.

The questionnaire included 3 questions linked to attitudes regarding the peed of the Internet. These

were Questions 1, 2, and 3. The table below shows the results. Moreover, question 1 was reversed to

avoid any bias in responses, but the answers have been flipped to help analysis of the results. The

results are shown below.

Question No. No. of Positive No. of Negative Mean Range Std.

Response Deviation
1 10 0 4.3 1 0.483046

2 7 1 2.5 3 0.971825

3 9 1 1.5 3 0.971825

Average 8.67 0.67 2.77 2.333 0.809

The questionnaire included 4 questions linked to attitudes regarding government involvement in

technology development. These were Questions 4, 5, 6 and 7. The table below shows the results.

However, question 4 was reversed to avoid any bias in responses, but the answers have been flipped to

help analysis of the results.

Question No. of Positive No. of Negative Mean Response Range Std.

No. Deviation
4 9 1 3.7 3 0.948683
5 10 1.6 1 0.516398
6 7 1 2.75 2 0.567646
7 9 1 2 3 0.816497
Average 8.75 0.75 2.51 2.25 0.712

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The questionnaire included 3 questions linked to attitudes regarding young people’s digital literacy.

These were Questions 8, 9, and 10. The table below shows the results.

Question No. No. of Positive No. of Mean Response Range Std. Deviation
Negative
8 3 2 3 3 1
9 4 5 3.1 2 0.994429
10 5 3 2.9 3 1.100505
Average 4 5 3 2.67 1.032

5. Discussion

Looking at the results as a whole, it appears there is significant support for the idea that young people in

Myanmar need to improve their technological education. Moreover, the questions about the Internet,

the government’s support, and digital literacy show particularly strong agreement, indicating that

Myanmar still needs to improve its technology. However, it must be remembered that this study only

asked 10 participants from one school, and so there is limited scope to apply the results more widely to

Myanmar.

First, considering the questions about the speed of the Internet, the individuals showed particular

support for the idea that the Internet connection is not strong. On average, 8.67 people out of 10 agreed

with the suggestion that the quality of the Internet is poor. Moreover, the low standard deviation scores

indicate that the participants were in close agreement. This is important as, if governments were to

improve the quality of the Internet, the Internet’s price would probably increase. The results show that

Myanmar needs to improve its Internet quality, which is a popular suggestion, so people are more likely

to accept an increase in Internet fees. However, given that people already complain that there are many

Internet connections but the quality is not qualify (Chang, 2013), the government would need to clearly

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demonstrate how Internet bill increases can help improve the quality of the Internet and link this to a

subsequent plan that will solve the problem of Internet speed.

Next, looking at the government’s support for technology education, this group of questions produced a

greater range of responses, as demonstrated by the higher standard deviation scores, which show the

greater spread of results. Questions 6, which focus on the government's support for technology, showed

less agreement than questions 4, 5, and 7, which criticize that government. Moreover, there are many

young people have improved their IT skills (THAILAND.WORLDED, 2018). However, due to the more

diverse views, it would be wise for any government to explain the rationale for change, so that more

people will understand the need for technological development. This could be related to the

government's lack of support for technology education, and a discussion about how government

assistance in technology could improve young people's access to more technology skills.

Finally, analyzing the questions about the young people's digital literacy, the individuals showed

particular support for the idea that young people have less knowledge about digital literacy. On average,

6 people out of 10 agreed with the suggestion that young people’s digital literacy is low. Moreover, the

low standard deviation scores indicate that the participants were in close agreement. This is important

as, if governments were to improve digital literacy for young people, there would probably need to be

an increase in taxation to pay for it. The results show that Myanmar needs to improve its digital literacy,

which is a popular suggestion, so people are more likely to accept an increase in tax. However, given

that people already complain that there are many Internet connections but young people still have less

knowledge about digital literacy (TELENOR, 2016), the government would need to clearly demonstrate

how tax increases can help improve young people’s digital literacy and link this to a subsequent

reduction in the need for poor digital literacy.

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Whilst this questionnaire broadly supports the suggestion that young people are not efficient in

technology, there are several limitations. First, the participants were all chosen from the same school.

Also, only 10 people were invited to take part. If the sample size had been larger and the target group

had been selected from a more diverse area, it is possible that the results would be more varied.

Therefore, future research could expand on this study by selecting participants from a greater range of

backgrounds and locations. Furthermore, if the study had been conducted over a longer period of time,

it is possible that different results would have been discovered. Future research may find significant in

comparing the expectations of young people’s technology efficiency before the country developed and

their response 20 years after the country has already developed.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, this study set out to investigate people’s attitudes to the educational reforms for young

people’s technology education skills. The findings broadly support the hypothesis that Myanmar is

beginning to develop, but that technology education requires additional investment and changes. In

each sub-topic, there was a majority in agreement with the idea that young people still need to develop

their technical education.

However, the greatest difference of opinion was linked to the government's support for e-government.

These results are important for the government, as they show that the people support the changes.

However, one major limitation of the study was the small sample size. Future research would benefit

from a larger and more varied group of participants. Moreover, it would be interesting to see if people’s

initial positivity towards the changes is maintained after five or ten years, as this should be the period

when students start to see the difference the changes have made to their life prospects.

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References

Bevec, B. (2020). Myanmar’s digital literacy must keep up with technological leap. MYANMARTIMES.
Retrieved from https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmars-digital-literacy-must-keep-
technological-leap.html#:~:text=Myanmar%20is%20not%20a%20digitally,more%20attention
%20to%20digital%20literacy

Chang, M. (2013). Building a Technology Future in Burma/ Myanmar. ASIAFOUNDATION. Retrieved from
https://asiafoundation.org/2013/04/03/building-a-technology-future-in-burmamyanmar/

Haffner, A. (2022). Myanmar’s internet gets pricier for dissenters, apolitical alike. ALJAZEERA. Retrieved
from https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/11/myanmars-internet-gets-pricier-for-
dissenters-apolitical-alike

THAILAND.WORLED. (2018). World Education hosts a youth and technology forum in Yangon. Retrieved
from https://thailand.worlded.org/news/world-education-hosts-a-youth-and-technology-forum-
in-yangon/

Kemp, S. (2021). Digital 2021: Myanmar. DATAREPOTAL. Retrieved from

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-myanmar

Nam, K., Cham, M. R., & Halili, P. R. (2015). Developing Myanmar’s Information and Communication
Technology sector toward inclusive growth. ADB. Retrieved from
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/176518/ewp-462.pdf

Shadrach, B. (2018). Upgrading Myanmar’s internet connection. EASTASHIAFORUM. Retrieved from

https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/06/16/upgrading-myanmars-internet-connection/

TELENOR. (n.d.). Telenor Digital School. Retrieved from

https://www.telenor.com.mm/en/about/telenor-digital-school

Win, H. H. (2017). How Tech is impacting lives in Myanmar. VERO-ASEAN. Retrieved from https://vero-
asean.com/tech-impacting-lives-myanmar/

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