Monastic schools in Myanmar

The Buddhist monastic school system in Myanmar is an old education system dated back to the 11th century. The schools were decentralised and provided education to all boys, across backgrounds, in Buddhist scriptures. The schools served mostly to instill moral values, support cultural assimilation and increase literacy- all aspects of the system that provided the Burmese monarch with religious and social legitimacy. The system survived through the British colonial period and was encouraged to fill a perceived gap in the secular schooling system, ultimately being co-opted by the socialist government after the 1962 coup d'état.