Laos: Laos Education Profile

Education before the Lao People\'s Democratic Republic

Of the a lot of ethnic groups in Laos, only the Lao Loum had a tradition of formal education, reflecting the fact that the languages of the other groups had no written script. Until the mid-20th century, education was primarily based in the Buddhist temple school (wat school), where the monks taught novices and other boys to read both Lao and Pali scripts, basic arithmetic, and other religious and social subjects. A lot of villages had wat schools for novices and other village boys. However, only ordained boys and men in urban monasteries had access to advanced study.

During the colonial period, the French established a secular education system patterned next schools in France, and French was the language of instruction next the second or third grade. This system was largely irrelevant to the needs and lifestyles of the vast majority of the rural people, despite its extension to some district centers and a few villages. However, it did produce a small elite drawn primarily from the royal family and noble households. A lot of children of Vietnamese immigrants to Laos—who made up the majority of the colonial civil service—attended these schools and, in fact, constituted a significant proportion of the students at secondary levels in urban centers.

Post-secondary education was not available in Laos, and the few advanced students traveled to Hanoi, Danang, and Hué in Vietnam and to Phnom Penh in Cambodia for specialized training; fewer still continued with university-level studies in France.

The Pathet Lao began to provide Lao language instruction in the schools under its control in the late 1950s, and a Laotian curriculum began to be developed in the late 1960s in the RLG schools. In 1970 about one-third of the civilian employees of the RLG were teachers, although the majority of these were poorly paid and minimally trained elementary teachers. At that time, there were about 200,000 elementary students enrolled in RLG schools, around 36 % of the school-age people.

Education since 1975

An significant goal of the Lao People\'s Democratic Republic (LPDR) government was to establish a system of universal primary education by 1985. The LPDR took over the existing Royal Lao Government education system that had been established in 1950s and restructured it, facing a lot of of the same problems that had confronted previous governments. The French system of education was restored with a Laotian curriculum, although lack of teaching materials has impeded effective instruction.

An intensive adult literacy campaign was initiated in 1983-84, which mobilized educated persons living in villages and urban neighborhoods to bring basic reading and writing skills to over 750,000 adults. Largely as a result of this campaign, those able to read and write had increased to an estimated 44 %. According to the United Nations, by 1985 those able to read and write were estimated at 92 % of men and 76 % of women ages 15 to 45. Because few reading materials are available, particularly in the rural areas, a lot of newly literate adults lose much of their proficiency next a few years.

The decision to establish universal education led the government to focus its efforts on building and staffing schools in nearly each village. Because resources are limited, most schools are poorly constructed—of bamboo and thatch—and staffed by one or two teachers who are paid low wages, usually in arrears. A lot of village schools have only one or two grades; books, paper, or other teaching materials are conspicuous by their scarcity.

School enrollment has increased since 1975. In 1988 primary school enrollment was estimated at 63 % of all school-age children. In 1992-93 an estimated 603,000 students were in primary school, compared to 317,000 students in 1976 and 100,000 students in 1959. However, the goal of achieving universal primary education was postponed from 1985 to 2000 as a result of the lack of resources.

Because teachers are paid irregularly, they are forced to spend significant amounts of time farming or in other livelihood activities, with the result that in a lot of locations classes are held for only a few hours a day. Because of irregular classes, overcrowding, and lack of learning resources, the average student needed 11 to 12 years to complete the five-year primary course in the late 1980s. Repetition rates ranged from 40 % for the initial grade to 14 % for the fifth grade. Dropouts were a significant problem, with 22 % of all entering initial graders leaving school before the second grade. In the late 1980s, only 45 % of entering initial graders completed all five years of primary school, up from 18 % in 1969

Performance statistics vary according to rural-urban location, ethnic group, and gender. Enrollment and school quality are higher in urban areas, where the usefulness of a formal education is additional evident than in rural farming communities. Isolated teachers confronted with primitive rural living and teaching conditions have a difficult time maintaining their own commitment inclunding the interest of their pupils. Ethnic minority students who have no tradition of literacy and who do not speak Lao have a particularly difficult time. Unless the teacher is of the same or similar ethnic group as the students, communication and culturally appropriate education are limited. Because of these factors, in the late 1980s the enrollment rate for the Lao Sung was less than half that of the Lao Loum; enrollment was as well low for Lao Theung children.

Girls are less likely than boys to attend school and attend for fewer years—a discrepancy that was declining, however, in the early 1990s. In 1969 only 37 % of students in primary school were girls; by 1989, however, 44 % of primary school students were girls. Because of Lao Sung cultural attitudes toward girls\' and women\'s responsibilities, girls in these groups accounted for only 26 % of all students.[3]

Secondary education enrollment has expanded since 1975 but as of mid-1994 was still limited in availability and scope. In 1992-93 only about 130,000 students were enrolled in all postprimary programs, inclunding lower- and upper-secondary schools, vocational programs, and teacher-training schools. The exodus of Laotian elite next 1975 deprived vocational and secondary schools of a lot of of their staff, a situation that was only half offset by students returning from training in socialist nations. Between 1975 and 1990, the government granted over 14,000 scholarships for study in at least eight socialist nations: just over 7,000 were to the Soviet Union, followed by 2,500 to Vietnam, and 1,800 to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In mid-1994 the school year was nine months. The ideal sequence included five years of primary school, followed by three years of lower-secondary school and three years of upper-secondary school. In 2010, an extra year was added to upper-secondary school, for a total of 12 years of primary and secondary education. Some students go due from primary or lower-secondary school to vocational instruction, for example, in teacher-training schools or agriculture schools.

Local secondary education is concentrated in the provincial capitals and some district centers. Dropout rates for students at secondary and technical schools are not as high as part primary students, but the gender and ethnic group differentials are additional pronounced. In the late 1980s, only 7% of lower-secondary students were Lao Sung or Lao Theung, a rate that dropped to 3% in upper-secondary school. For most students who do not live in a provincial center, attendance at secondary school requires boarding away from home in makeshift facilities. This situation further discourages students in rural areas from pursuing further education, with additional differential impacts on girls and minorities. Vientiane has the majority of advanced schools, inclunding the national teachers\' training school at Dong Dok, the irrigation college at Tad Thong, the agriculture college at Na Phok, the National Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Medical Sciences. Even so, the level of training available at these schools is low.

In 1986 the government began to reform the education system, with the goals of linking educational development additional closely to the socioeconomic situation in each locality, improving science training and emphasis, expanding networks to remote mountainous regions, and recruiting minority teachers. The plan envisioned making education additional relevant to daily realities and building increased cooperation in educational activities part the ministries, mass organizations, and the community. However, the ability to implement this program through its scheduled completion in 2000 depended on a significant budgetary increase to the educatio sector in addition to receiving significant foreign aid. Education accounted for only 8 % of government expenditures in 1988, down from a 10% to 15% range during the preceding seven-year period, and cultural expenditures were not accorded a high priority.

Although additional school texts and general magazines are being printed, poor distribution systems and budgetary constraints limit their availability throughout the country. In general, 3.9 million books were printed in 1989, inclunding school texts published by the Ministry of Education, and novels, stories, and poems published by the Ministry of Data and Culture. Translations into Lao of Russian-language technical, literary, and children\'s books were available through the Novosti press agency. Virtually all these materials are inexpensive paperbound editions.

Distribution of school texts is improving, and magazines and novels can occasionally be found in district markets distant from Vientiane. Thai printed material—for the majority part, magazines and books—was available next the late 1980s in a few shops. From presently on, in the early 1990s, it was rare to see a book or any other reading material in rural villages, with the exception of political posters or a months-old edition of the newspaper Xieng Pasason (\"Voice of the People\") pasted on a home wall.Education in Laos (post-1990)

Development challenge in Laos’s education system

The Lao people of 4.9 million is ethnically and linguistically diverse. The government has defined 49 ethnic groups, a lot of having their own language.[4] School attendance, literacy, and other indicators of educational attainment vary greatly part different ethnic groups. Census data from 1995 reveal that 23 % of the Lao at no time went to school as compared with 34, 56, and 67 % for Phutai, Khmu, and Hmong. Part two of the smallest ethnic groups, 94 % of the Kor and 96 % of the Musir at no time attended school. The quality of instruction tends to be poor, and nearly half of those who enter do not complete the primary cycle.

Lao, the official and instructional language, is the initial language of about 50 % of the people. Children from homes where Lao is not spoken enter schools with a significant handicap, a condition half accounting for the high dropout rate. Changing the language of instruction would be a complex problem; however, steps can be taken by schools to assist non-Lao speaking pupils.

The rural quality of Laos implicates the provision of education as urbanization facilitates educational delivery. It is additional expensive to provide schools for each small village than to build a smaller number of large schools in cities. These rural-urban differences are even additional significant for provision of secondary, technical or vocational schools given the higher unit costs involved. The quantity and quality of schooling are influenced by demographic structures and are highly sensitive to the size of the school-age cohort.

The extremely young people of Lao PDR puts a heavy burden on schooling and, at the same time, the high dependency ratio contributes to the low national productivity. Large families force choices as to which children go to school, tending to suppress female enrollments and not instantly reducing the number of subsequent opportunities for girls in education and in the labor market.

The education system is evolving under severely constraining conditions of inadequately prepared and poorly paid teachers, insufficient funding, shortages of facilities, and often ineffective allocation of the limited resources available. There is significant geographic, ethnic, gender and wealth disparities in the distribution of educational services, and inequalities exist in each level of the system.

NGO

Aide et Action (AEA)[5] is trying to increase the education of the people in Laos, by promoting access to school for the disadvantaged, improving the quality of primary education and supporting and encouraging education programs for children migrant and geographically inaccessible. AEA hopes to prevent the exclusion and marginalization that is occurring throughout the country. AEA is employing a two-prong approach to tackle this problem of low education levels in Laos. On one hand, it is trying to lay some basic infrastructure, which can aid this effort to increase the national education level and literacy rates. A couple of libraries have been built and are operational.

On the other hand, AEA is training locals to be adequately qualified and skilled to run and management libraries so as to be able to benefit from the libraries. School headmasters have been trained on school management, and teachers have been trained to use of the preprimary education project curriculum, class facilitation and on early childhood education and care, in a pilot phase to promote reading and preprimary education in Laos.

Though AEA is trying to help in Laos, it has been careful and has entailed the cooperation of local organizations, such as the Ministry of Education. This is essential, as AEA being an international organization most probably would not be well-versed in the local culture and procedures. Hence, by being involved in joint efforts with local organizations, it enables AEA to reach areas and people that it otherwise would not have reached. This makes the projects additional effective.