Spring University Myanmar (SUM) and Mizzima Media are pleased to announce the expansion of their collaboration to promote public education in Myanmar.
This partnership aims to maximize student outreach and provide access to quality education, even in areas of Myanmar with limited internet access.
Under this expanded collaboration, Mizzima Media will grant its platform to help promote and distribute learning materials developed by SUM.
The activities include:
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Podcasts and video lecture series featuring experts from SUM and guest speakers from Mizzima.
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Social media campaigns to educate the public on important issues.
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News articles and publications by Mizzima highlighting SUM's work in education and awareness.
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Co-hosting workshops on media literacy topics for promising citizen journalists and media professionals.
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Developing edutainment programs that combine educational content with creative elements, focusing on current events and trending topics.
As the partners note, the primary goal of this initiative is to bring education to a wider audience and promote lifelong learning. By leveraging the reach of Mizzima Media's platform and the academic resources of SUM, the two organizations hope to create a positive impact on the lives of students at risk in Myanmar.
“In the wake of military coup in Myanmar, Spring University is committed to providing educational access to millions of young people in Myanmar,” said Ko Bay Dar, head of Communications of Spring University. “With the support of our students, we are proud to have established partnerships with universities from around the world, including the United States, New Zealand, Thailand, The Philippines, Australia, Korea, and Switzerland. By collaborating with Mizzima, we hope to further empower more students by leveraging their platform to reach a wider audience and provide educational resources to the underserved communities.”
SUM was established in May 2021 with a dual mission of supporting the interim education of youths while fundraising for scholars at risk and vulnerable communities. SUM consists of 12 schools focusing on a range of disciplines. Over the past two years, more than 16,000 students had enrolled in SUM online courses in different academic fields. SUM maintains a broad network of partners and alliances with youth organizations, protest groups, university Students’ Unions and ethnic education platforms. With more than 178,000 organic followers on Facebook, SUM is said to have a strong presence on social media through which advocacy projects and awareness campaigns are organized.
Mizzima is the leading source of news on post-coup Myanmar for Myanmar media consumers. Mizzima boasts over 21 million followers on its main Facebook page in addition to a digital daily newspaper in Burmese, a weekly English language magazine, and FM and SW radio broadcasting. While our two free-to-air satellite television channels reach an estimated 32 million viewers.
SUM likes to expand cooperation with Mizzima by providing more educational content.
Mizzima itself is launching Research and Educational Development Programmes in partnership with the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) of Chiang Mai University and the Political Science Department of Chulalongkorn University, Mizzima’s Research and Educational Development Programmes can also be expanded to the future cooperation with SUM.
Mizzima as a media outlet with various distribution platforms can further disseminate educational content from SUM once there is proper cooperation plan is set up in the future. This MoU is signed by the two institutions to confirm commitments to work together in the Research and Educational Development programs ahead.
The ongoing collaboration between SUM and Mizzima Media so far has involved SUM delivering radio lectures on topics related to vocational skills, social sciences, and mental wellbeing. These lectures are broadcast twice a week through Mizzima Radio.
