| Than Oo | |
| Native Name Lang: | my |
| Office: | Director-General of the Department of Basic Education |
| Term Start: | 1977 |
| Office2: | Assistant Education Research Officer of the Burma Education Research Bureau |
| Term Start2: | 1965 |
| Term End2: | 1977 |
| Birth Place: | Chaungnadan village, Pyay Township, Pegu Province, British Burma |
| Alma Mater: | Rangoon University |
| Occupation: | Educator |
| Mawards: | is not set --> |
Than Oo (Burmese: သန်းဦး) is a prominent Burmese educator and Ministry of Education (MOE) official.[1]
He was born in Chaungnadan village in Pyay Township, Pegu Province (now Bago Region), located 170miles north of Rangoon (now Yangon) in 1928.[2] His mother was mentally ill, while his father and elder brother died when Than Oo was young. Than Oo studied at Rangoon University, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in education.[2] He continued his study at the University of Hawaiʻi, through a scholarship with the East-West Center, and obtained a Master of Education in 1963.[2]
Than Oo subsequently returned to Burma. He was appointed Assistant Administration Officer of Schools at the Directorate of Education, and went on to become a Principal of the Bassein Teacher Training School.[2] In 1965, he was appointed as the Assistant Education Research Officer under the Ministry of Education's Burma Education Research Bureau.[2] There, he began a nationwide mass literacy movement that increased Burma's literacy rate to 78.6% by 1988, and reformed the Burmese language pedagogy.[2]
In 1977, he was appointed to Director-General of the MOE's Department of Basic Education, becoming an influential education advisor.[2]
Than Oo is the chairman of the Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science.[3] He also currently serves on the academic advisory board of the Myanmar Education Promotion Implementation Committee.[4] [5] He also serves as the chairman for the Myanmar Literacy Resource Centre.[6]
In 2013, the University of Yangon awarded Than Oo an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by for his professional accomplishments.[7] On 16 May 2015, the University of Hawaiʻi awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.[4] [7]