National Education System Reform Strategy (NESRS) 2006-2015
Introduction
In March 2008 the Eighth Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Congress reemphasized its long-term national development goal of enabling the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) to graduatefrom the ranks of the least developed
countries by 2020, and to build the basic human and physical infrastructure for the shift to
industrialization and modernity.
In order to achieve this goal, the Congress confirmed in that during the period
2006 to 2010 education is to be considered the main focus for human resource
Over the last 20 years since the introduction of a market economy, the national
education system has gradually improved in terms of quantity and quality. The current
education system developed through an eclectic approach, which drew upon the best
aspects from the education system of the colonial era, of the semi-royalist era, and the
revolutionary era. The system has also introduced ideas pertaining to “new education”,
drawing on lessons learned fromexperiences in other countries. However, the education
system still has not achieved an appropriate balance betweenquantity and quality. In its
development it has not directly follow a national education strategy and it does not
complement the current goals for socio-economicdevelopment. In addition, the status of
teachers and incentive systems for them are still not sufficiently advanced to allow
teachers to devote themselves to effective teaching. It is therefore time to solve these
problems by reforming the national education system. Through the National Education
System Reform Strategy 2006-2015, an overall goal for education has beenset, directions
and strategies have been established, and a plan for the implementation of the Strategy
has been prepared. In this way the Strategy aims to graduallyimprove the national
education system leading to better growth and quality and moving the education system
towards international standards. Overall the Strategy aims to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country over every five year period from 2010 until 2020.