Education in Laos
Many 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.[4] An important goal of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) government was to establish a system of universal primary education by 1985.[5] 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 many 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.Isolated teachers confronted with primitive rural living and teaching conditions have a difficult time maintaining their own commitment as well as the interest of their pupils.The exodus of Laotian elite after 1975 deprived vocational and secondary schools of many of their staff, a situation that was only partly offset by students returning from training in socialist countries.Between 1975 and 1990, the government granted over 14,000 scholarships for study in at least eight socialist countries: 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).Yet, 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 house wall.Children from homes where Lao is not spoken enter schools with a significant handicap, a condition partly accounting for the high dropout rate.The extremely young population 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 indirectly 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.
literacyLao LoumFrenchVietnameseDanangPhnom PenhCambodiaLao People's Democratic Republicprimary educationRoyal Lao GovernmentvillagesUnited Nationsschoolsuniversal primary educationteachersfarmingDropoutsLao SungLao TheungSecondary educationSoviet UnionVietnamGerman Democratic RepublicVientianeteachers' training schoolEducation in Laos (post-1990)ThakhekLuang Prabangdependency ratioWayback MachineLibrary of CongressFederal Research Divisionpublic domainarticlesHistoryPeoplingKhun BoromLao peopleTai peoplesLan XangVat PhouLuang PhrabangChampasakMuang PhuanFrench protectorateJapanese invasionJapanese puppet stateLao IssaraKingdom of LaosIndochina WarsHo Chi Minh trailPathet LaoLaotian Civil WarVietnamese invasionNeutralityHistory until 1945History since 1945Insurgency2007 coup attemptGeographyDeforestationEcoregionsMekongPhou BiaRiversProtected areasWildlifeWorld Heritage SitesPoliticsAdministrative divisionsConstitutionElectionsForeign relationsGeneral SecretaryHuman rightsLGBT rightsLaw enforcementMilitaryNational AssemblyPresidentPolitical partiesVice PresidentPrime MinisterEconomyAgricultureCentral bankKip (currency)EnergyFishingStock exchangeTelecommunicationsTourismTrade unionsTransportDemographicsEthnic groupsHealthCOVID-19LanguageProstitutionReligionSex traffickingCultureAnthemCuisineDramatic artsEmblemFestivalsLiteraturePublic holidaysSportsOutlineSovereign statesAfghanistanArmeniaAzerbaijanBahrainBangladeshBhutanBruneiCyprusEast Timor (Timor-Leste)GeorgiaIndonesiaIsraelJordan