Myanmar is a diverse country with over 135 officially recognized ethnic groups and languages. Its complex history is marked by decades of conflict and military rule. The education sector has been a central point of contention, with government education historically seen as a tool for assimilating non-Bamar populations. Prior to 2015, the Ministry of Education of Myanmar (MoE) mandated the sole use of Myanmar as the language of instruction, prohibiting the teaching of ethnic languages and using a standardized curriculum that did not reflect local contexts or ethnic minority cultures. This led to significant grievances among ethnic nationality groups and remains a key driver of conflict. Given the restricted public funds for education in ethnically diverse and increasingly conflict-affected areas, indigenous providers of education (IPE) developed their own education system to ensure that indigenous children in these remote and difficult to reach areas have access to quality education which is linguistically and culturally relevant for them. Although acknowledged in the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and the Myanmar National Education Sector Plan (NESP) 2016 - 2021, IPE are not officially recognized by law. As a consequence, teachers and students that are educated within indigenous systems do not receive government accreditation, funding and resources. The opportunities for teacher competency and skills improvement are limited and indigenous students who wish to continue their education in the government system have to take their exams in the Myanmar language and based on the Myanmar curriculum, for which they are often barely prepared.

In addition, Myanmar has experienced a big difference in the enrolment and completion of studies in rural and urban areas. The overall reduction of livelihood opportunities and increasing poverty in indigenous areas, exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, the non-existence of secondary schools in rural conflict-affected areas, as well as the language and curriculum barriers have caused that indigenous children cannot pursue education beyond primary school.

The intervention Conflict Area Support for Education (CASE) to Learn (C2L) builds on previous projects that supported the Rural Indigenous Sustainable Education (RISE) network to support IPE to expand and strengthen their services; and improve the quality of education and learning outcomes. It is the only grant contract under the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) Action “Strengthening Indigenous Provision of Education in Ethnic Areas of Myanmar.” The intervention is implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Myanmar. The co-applicants are ADRA Germany and ADRA United Kingdom. The RISE network acts as a local partner. The RISE network represents indigenous peoples across Myanmar and was established by a collective of indigenous education-focused organisations that cooperate and support their own communities in remote, often conflict-affected areas across Myanmar.

Further to the already difficult context at the start of implementation, COVID-19 and the military coup of 2021 heavily affected the initial intervention logic, and several adjustments were necessary for the intervention to adapt to the new circumstances.