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MUSEUM & LEARNING
​Our Museum and Education Programme aims to inspire Myanmar's future generations.
U Thant House welcomes close to 6,000 museum visitors per year, 75% of whom are from Myanmar. We consider the museum first and foremost a service to community; offering an opportunity to learn not only about a historic person but also an important part of global history, as well as to reflect on the values U Thant worked to promote such a peace, tolerance and the safeguarding of the environment.
We believe museums have an important role to fill in society as a place for learning and can serve as a complement to formal education institutions, regardless of a visitor’s age or prior training. This opportunity to facilitate learning using modern pedagogic methodologies to engage (and change) visitors is perhaps particularly important in an ethnically diverse country like Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of dictatorship and isolation with the overarching challenge of transitioning to a peaceful, inclusive, and globally re-connected society.
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U Thant House is staffed by knowledgeable guides who can walk you through the collection and bring U Thant and his times to life. Visitors can see personal papers, rare photographs, and videos of historic speeches.
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A visit to U Thant House provides opportunities to:
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learn about the life and times of U Thant, the third Secretary-General of the United Nations and lifelong public servant, educator, and writer who served two terms as the world’s top diplomat during the tumultuous 1960s, ushering in visionary new initiatives to promote peace, development, and human rights around the world;
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explore Myanmar and Cold War history through photographs, newsreels, and books on topics from Myanmar’s earliest post-independence years to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War;
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enjoy a peaceful garden in the heart of Yangon featuring native plants from around the country; and reflect on the global changes of U Thant’s lifetime and on the guiding principles of the work of the United Nations then and today.
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What you can expect from a visit
In 2019 we received:
5,669 visitors
4,422 Students
96 School groups
75% Myanmar nationals
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PROGRAMMES FOR STUDENTS
Our Education Programme targeted at Myanmar youth aged 8-26 emphasises peace and tolerance and the need to protect the environment. It is designed to inspire reflection on U Thant’s core values and how they apply to the daily lives of students in terms of upholding human dignity, challenging prejudice, and promoting nonviolence, and caring for the earth.
Launched in September 2018 the programme uses specially crafted interactive materials to foster new thinking on history, peace, reconciliation, and development in Myanmar with the aim of stimulating the next generation to think imaginatively about their future, country, and role in the global community.
In the pilot phase alone, we have been able to serve 2,000 students. With the Ministry of Education’s recent addition of U Thant studies to the national curricula we expect to see an even higher demand on our offerings in the coming year and plan to use the opportunity to ensure that the studies on U Thant make a meaningful contribution to peace in this country, by inspiring children to reflect on peace, and what it means in terms of upholding human dignity, challenging prejudice and building tolerance, promoting nonviolence and caring for the earth.
Existing educational materials include an activity booklet, quizzes, group exercises.
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