SWOT analysis of SML school

Topic               : SWOT analysis of Sun Moon Light Private School in Tachileik, Myanmar

Submitted by  : Nang Aye Aye Htun

SWOT analysis of Sun Moon Light Private School in Tachileik, Myanmar

Sun Moon Light Private School is located in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar. It has about 500 students and 35 teachers who are teaching at the school. The school has been founded for for 11 years. Most importantly , I have worked there for 10 years . These are the SWOT analysis of Sun Moon Light Private School.

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
Use international and government curriculum	teachers recuriment	Cambridge ESOL exams	Local Chinese school
Limited students	Language barriers among teachers and students or parents	Foreign exchange program	Education officers from the government sector
Location	School compound	Can choose schools
Facilities	Location
Teaching methodologies
Weekly meeting with teachers and principal
Cultural activities
Parents’ participation

This school only accept 25 students for each class and there are only 2 classrooms for each grade. As a result, the teachers can focus really well on teaching them and the students get more chances to participate in all the activities. Moreover, the teaching methodologies that are used in the school is child-centered approach ( CCA) techniques. Therefore, the classroom is always lively and interactive. In addition, the school never hesitates to provide the teaching materials that are needed to the teachers either realia objects or the materials such as posters, documents, etc. Most importantly, there is a big library on the top floor of the school building which are loaded with about 3000 books from different genres for both young learners and teenagers. Every year, the school held two cultural activities where the students can learn their origins such as how to make their traditional food, practice and shoe off their cultural dance and costumes, etc.

In addition, this school use two curricula : Cambridge and National curricula. Therefore, the students can have a choice to go to both international and public schools after they are decided to transfer. Furthermore , the school is located in the border region with the northern part of Thailand, so, the students can have foreign exchange and educational trips to Chiang Rai and Chiang 

Mai. So far, the students had had educational exchange trip with three Chiang Rai schools for this academic year of 2023. Since the school is also using Cambridge curriculum, every year, the students can take the Cambridge ESOL exams such as Young Learner Exam ( Starters, Movers, Flyers) ,KET ( Key English Test)  and PET ( Preliminary English Test) held by the British Council in Myanmar. For the students’ progresses, the principal is always working and follow up with the teachers in every weekly meeting. What a surprise is that the parents’ of the students are also actively participated in both school activities and the requirements that the teachers ask for to support the students in their learning.

Overall, these two paragraphs above are the strengths and opportunities of Sun Moon Light Private school in Tachileik, Myanmar.

However, the school also has its own weaknesses and threats, too. Since the school is located in the border region, most of the teachers do not want to come and work or some of the parents of the teachers do not allow them to come and work here because of its past black history. In addition, Tachileik is a very small city, so, there is not a lot of places to explore around the city. So, the students has little chances of going on outdoor studies and the teachers also have little places to explore on their holidays. Therefore, the teachers do not want to stay here for a long time. After one or two years, they will just move to other schools in other cities like Manadalay, Taunggyi, etc. Therefore, the school always have to struggle a lot in recruiting the teachers. 

Tachileik is also a city with lots of minorities ethnic groups living together in harmony. Therefore, there are many languages spoken. So, the very first time when the students come to the school, the teachers have to try very hard to communicate with both students and parents because they can only speak their own language. Even in the classroom, the teachers have to struggle a lot and use a lot of teaching resources to make sure that the students understand the lessons.  Furthermore, the school compound is a bit small for the number of the students that the school have although it has basketball and badminton court.

           The following two paragraphs are the weaknesses of the school. 

As a private school, it can has its own curriculum, rules and regulation conducted by itself. However, due to being in a small city, the involvements of the education officers from the town education department is very frequent. According to the education law, they are only allowed to follow up with the school activities and give suggestions and guide whether the school is running in the right track or not.  But what they do currently is requesting the school to follow all the steps that the public school have to do although it is not necessary as a private school.That’s very annoying and delaying the school in achieving its own missions.

In addition, the influence of Chinese is very big among the people in Tachileik including the students. Almost every parent send their children to Chinese school which is from 6p.m. to 8:30 pm every weekdays although they are not Chinese. And the students will arrive back their home around 9 or 9:30 p.m. because of the traffic. So, they are already tired when they arrive back their home. As a result, the students also cannot focus and do the school’s homework or do the revision of what they have learned in the school. This lead the students fail to perform well in the class. When they are in the classroom, they will be sleep and always tired. Finally, they won’t enjoy coming to the school and learn the lessons. So, the number of the students who drop off the school is becoming higher and higher. 

To sum up, these are the threats of the school.

In conclusion, the school has all the positive things and negative things. However, it is important to find out how the school is going to turn the threats and weaknesses into its strengths and opportunities.