Our Main Partner is the Monastic Education Sector which is something like the Catholic Education system in Australia.  Monasteries have schools and children from the surrounding community attend as they would a state run school.  Monastic Schools follow the state curriculum but they have a lot more flexibility and can teach to the needs of the children. Teaching is one of the Buddhist ‘charities’ (an act by which one can gain merit) and monasteries have been the centre of learning for centuries.  In the past, the monastery was the only avenue for education, presently it is the only option for many who cannot afford the government fees or for those who live in more remote areas where only monastic schools exist.  Children do not need to become novices to be able to enter monastic schools.  There are approximately 2,000 monastic schools around the country out of which only three (two in Mandalay and one in Yangon) cover the complete spectrum of primary and secondary education.  In total, the monastic system officially caters for around 300,000 students (according to the Ministry for Religious Affairs) but the actual number is likely to be much higher.  Most monastic schools cover only primary level.  They are under-resourced and, on the whole, lack a body of trained and experienced teachers and school administrators.  Many monastic schools rely on the goodwill of the surrounding community both for provision of necessary teaching materials as well as teaching staff being drawn from interested and motivated members of the community.  The majority of teachers in the system lack any formal training and often only have a primary education themselves.