EDUCATION SYSTEM IN LAOS

This newsletter is going to deal with the education system in Laos.

Very poor country you will see that we are very far from the standards which we know

Nature of the school system
The Laotian school system is decentralized. At the central level, the education system is administered by the Ministry of Education law on the education of 2007 defines its functions: general strategy, regulation of the system, the development of curricula, training and management of teaching staff, evaluation, etc. It shares his its responsibilities with territorial authorities: - the educational provincial services in 16 provinces of Laos: persons in charge of the educational institutions secondary sector and institutions of in-service training in delegation of the ministry; - the educational offices of district in 142 districts of the country: persons in charge of the pre-primary, primary institutions and the informal educational structures.

In 10 500 Laotian villages listed in 2005, rustic committees of development of the education organize the commitment of communities in the school affairs at the local level.

 

 

Ministry (ies) in charge of the education and the professional training

The education system is administered by the Ministry of Education. Other ministries handle the professional technical formation in their respective domains (Ministry of Agriculture and forests, Ministry of Employment and the social well-being, etc.).

Shown objectives and major principles

Laotian constitution (articles 19, 22 and 38): the education is designed as the way to raise the level of knowledge and patriotism of the Laotian people, while asserting the spirit of solidarity between the various ethnic groups and the spirit of independence. The article 22 stipulates that the State has to insure the development of the education and operate the compulsory primary education to train citizens endowed " with a mentality, with knowledge and with revolutionary skills ".

The State authorizes the development of private schools if they follow the national curriculum. It also encourages the investment deprived for the development of the educational sector. Decree on the compulsory primary education ( 1996 ): the primary education is free and compulsory for all the children. The decree of 1996 also recognizes the need to widen the access to the education in the ethnic communities and to strengthen the quality of the education through the formation of the teachers.

Law on the education (adopted in 2000 and amended in 2007): all the Laotian citizens have the right to education. The State is responsible for developing the secondary education, but also the vocational training, in agreement with the needs of work market. In 2007, the lower secondary education passed from 3 to 4 years.

 

Primary joint, secondary, superior

The primary education is compulsory from 6 years and lasts five years. At the end of cycle, the students obtain a primary educational certificate. Since 2009, the structure of divided into two levels, inferior secondary and superior secondary, of three years each). Since 2009, the students follow four years of inferior secondary, then three years of superior secondary. The admission in the superior secondary is opened to all the students having made a success of the examination of the inferior secondary, the certificate of general education. At the end of the superior secondary, the students take a national examination (superior secondary achievement examination).

The students willing to follow a vocational training can do it from the end of the primary school (training lasts then four years) either after the certificate of general education (in three years). Technical trainings from three to four years are also opened to the students having obtained their certificate of general education. The superior education proposes academic, professional or technical trainings to the university (a national university and two provincial), in the training schools of the teachers or the private institutions, the secondary education was modified (previously six years)

Public – private

The part of the students registered in private schools is low: 2,9 % for the primary school, 2,3 % for the inferior secondary and 1,3 % for the superior secondary (UNESCO Bangkok, on 2012).

Costs for families

Although the secondary education is legally free, tuition fees are often applied by schools to cover the expenses of maintenance and operation not included in the budgets assigned by the ministry.

Tuition fees were officially abolished in 2011, what represented, in certain cases, a real loss of financial resources for schools. In certain schools, the parents continue to finance the sports activities or the rent of books, and about 20 % of schools charge expenses of examinations.

 

Programs and curricula

Implementation of the national curriculum since 1994-95, based on five educational "pillars": morale, intellectual, physical, esthetics and the work. The subjects and the contents are defined at the national level with regard to objectives of learning. For the primary school and the inferior secondary, 20 % of the contents can be defined locally. Disciplines taught in primary school ( 2011 ): lao, mathematics, "The world around us", drawing, arts, handicraft, physical education. Disciplines taught in the inferior secondary (2011 ): lao, mathematics, drawing, arts, physical education, history, geography, civics, natural sciences, foreign languages, technical.

Diciplines taught in the superior secondary (2011 ): lao, literature lao, mathematics, physical education, history, geography, civics, biology, physical education, chemistry, foreign languages, technical. One these three levels also: salute to the colors, participation in the activities of the school and in the assembly.

Teachers

The system of management and transformation of the teachers is centralized and managed by the ministry. There are various categories of teachers: the state employees (quota teachers), the contractor employees of the public schools (non-quota teachers) and the professors of private recruited by communities. The average wage of the professors is low (39 $ a month for the primary school and 45 $ for the secondary school, far below the GDP per head. In 2011 the country counted 33 576 teachers in the primary school and 24 652 in the secondary school. The country is lacking teachers in rural areas. Training of the teachers: - for the teachers of the primary school, according to several modalities: four years of studies after the primary certificate, three years after the inferior secondary school, or on one year after the diploma of the secondary school. For the teachers of the secondary school: after the diploma of the secondary school, the training of three years for the inferior secondary school teachers or of five years for those of the superior secondary school, completed by an internship of three months.

Time of education

The school year consists of 33 weeks of studies. Duration of the courts: 33 minutes (primary school) or 45 minutes.

Classrooms are often scantily equipped and poor quality: a blackboard, benches or chairs, and wooden tables and that's it! A study (2012) indicates that half of the Laotian schools has the roof which runs away when it is raining; only half has the water supply, 20 % have the electricity and less than half have toilet. The conditions are harder in the campaign than in town.

 

 

 

 

 

Current reformations

Strategy for the reform of the national education system ( 2006-2015 ) and executive for the development of the educational sector ( 2009-2015 ) which formalizes it and implements it: the development of coherent national curricula and including is a central element of this strategy. The priority fixed to this period is to make sure that the primary and secondary curricula corresponds to the international standards. A consultative national Committee for the curricula reform was set up in 2007. The budgetary objective is to make cross the public spending in 11 % education in 2010-2011 in 18 % before 2015. The development of the sector of the early childhood constitutes another axis of this strategy. Other objectives: the development of the technical and professional education in provinces; the formation of the teachers, through the Strategy for the education of the teachers ( 2006-2015 ).

Others

Laos is a part of "least developed countries" in the sense of the OECD. In 2008, 66 % of the population lived with less than 2 $ a day (below the poverty line). Laos benefits from the initiative of the World Bank "Fast track" for the Education for all, (objective: complete cycle of the primary sector for all the children before 2015). The salary of the teachers is low and schools and classrooms are often scantily equipped and poor quality. The teachers often have a complementary activity, which has an unfavorable impact on the quality of the education. A study (2012) indicates that half of the Laotian schools has the roof which runs away when it is raining; Only half has the water supply, 20 % have the electricity and less than half have toilet. We noticed in 2005-2006 the geographical disparities in the rates of admission of the primary school, in the secondary school: 77,6 % at the national level, against 65 % in the province of Sekong and 87 % to Ventiane. Certain villages of the mountainous zones are not endowed with primary schools or offer incomplete cycles. The gap between urban areas and rural areas increases with the age of the students.

 

While 30,6 % of the children stemming from favored urban areas have access to the inferior secondary education, only 3,3 % of the children stemming from unprivileged backgrounds of rural areas have access there. We also notice strong variations of the quality of the school equipments between rural and urban areas. Although the legal age of entrance to the primary school is fixed to 6 years, most of the children enter the school only in 9 or 10 years and stay until their adolescence there. In 2004-2005, among the children from 10 to 18 years old, 8 to 9 % of the boys and 14 to 18 % of the girls had never attended the school. In Laos, multi-ethnic country, the language also constitutes an obstacle to the access to the education of certain communities not - lao.