In Lao PDR there are 11,640 villages. In approximately 70% of them, children have access to some grades (but not all) of primary school. Among these schools, 64.2% of primary schools are incomplete, consisting of grade 1, grades 1-2, grades 1-3, or up to grade 4. Only 35.8% of the villages have access to a school offering complete primary school education, mostly in large villages close to the roads. In provinces with large ethnic populations, more than 60% of the schools offer incomplete primary education.
In remote villages of ethnic minority districts, most schools were one-teacher school, offering first grade primary education. Low access to complete primary schools together with the quality problems appear to contribute significantly to the high percentage of children that have never been to school and those who have been to school but who dropped out and don’t have the opportunity to finish their primary education.
As with other areas in education, the data on the location of schools and teachers in the Lao PDR is quite limited. Table 19 presents data on the location of primary schools by province.
The table also has information on the total number of primary schools and the number of incomplete primary schools. Finally, it includes a column for the percentage of villages without any primary school. Given the size of the country and the state of the roads, the presence of an incomplete school or the absence of any school is likely to be an absolute constraint of the children in many village to finish (or even start) primary education.
Table 16: The Location of Primary Schools, by Province
Province
% ethnic minorities
Number of villages
Number of primary schools Number of complete primary schools Number of incomplete primary schools % Temporary School Buildings* % of villages without schools
Vientiane Municipality
7.4%
486
468
359
109
31%
4%
Phongsaly
95.7%
663
380
54
326
85%
43%
Luangnamtha
97.7%
487
234
43
191
81%
52%
Oudomxay
90.9%
804
433
88
345
71%
46%
Bokeo
86.6%
397
167
55
112
68%
58%
Luangprabang
71.4%
1214
841
233
608
60%
31%
Huaphanh
70.0%
925
547
164
383
70%
41%
Xayaboury
81.0%
576
482
265
217
59%
16%
Xiengkhuang
55.7%
505
418
115
303
69%
17%
Vientiane Province
59.8%
498
423
229
194
32%
15%
Borikhamxay
59.8%
462
304
99
205
70%
34%
Khammuane
40.6%
874
513
177
336
65%
41%
Savannakhet
42.5%
1576
1096
422
674
54%
30%
Saravane
40.0%
731
423
93
330
70%
42%
Sekong
91.4%
278
115
22
93
86%
59%
Champasack
15.2%
896
745
319
426
22%
17%
Attapeu
63.1%
188
174
41
133
60%
7%
Xaysomboon S.R.
80.6%
137
103
41
62
68%
25%
Source: NSC Population Census and National EFA 2000, MOE 1999. *PES Annual Report 1996, Most of Incomplete Primary Schools are temporary buildings.
The data does suggest that as the percentage of ethnic minority population rises, the number of villages without schools or with incomplete schools also rises. It is important to interpret this result with the proper perspective—it by no means implies that the government is ignoring the needs of ethnic minorities. It may reflect the fact that ethnic minorities live in more remote and rural areas than the Lao-speaking population does.
It is to be underlined that all the schools do not offer the five grades of primary schooling and that some schools are therefore incomplete. If the school offers only the first 2 grades (28.6%), it is likely that students that registered in grade 2 will put an end to their schooling without ever reaching grade 3, since the nearest school offering grade 3 is usually too far away. In this case, it is the school system that fails, not the students who gives up. This case is different from that where grade 3 exist in the school and where the student decides to put an end to his/her studies.
It is therefore of interest to document, within the population those who "drop-out" from school in the course of primary education, the proportion of a) drop-out in the case where the child could not have extended his/her education due to the incompleteness of the schooling system, and b) drop-out in circumstances where the child could have prolonged his/her education. Table 17 : shows the distribution of the schools according to the grades offered in 1996-97.
Table 17: Percentage of schools by grade
School offering only Grade 1
School offering up to Grade 2
School offering up to Grade 3
School offering up to Grade 4
School offering the 5 Grade
Schools which data are not reliable
Total
821
2097
1395
424
2551
30
7318
11.2%
28.6%
19.1%
5.8%
34.8%
0.4%
100%
Access to lower secondary education is even more restricted. Lower secondary schools are sparsely distributed across rural districts, and children have to travel further from their village to attend the secondary school. The cost of transportation, lack of boarding facilities, and the opportunity cost for children in school and not working make it costly for the family to send their children to lower secondary school. Poverty remains an obstacle that limits the opportunity of those children who wish to attend secondary school.
6.2.1.7 Core Indicator 9 and 10: Percentage of primary school teachers having the required academic qualifications, and who are certified to teach according to national standards.
The Teacher Training Department defined teachers with academic qualifications are those teacher graduates of all system and those untrained teachers with level of education of lower secondary and above. Those teachers that are certified to teach are teachers who have gone through the 8+3 teacher training system, which is the current national standard for primary school teachers.
Table 18 : Percentage of primary school teachers having required academic qualifications and certified to teach for the whole country 1991-98.
Percentage of primary school teachers Gender Parity Index
With academic
qualification (1) Certified to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
1997-98
86.6
37.4
1.1
1.5
1996-97
88.5
34.7
1.1
1.5
1995-96
87.1
32.6
1.1
1.6
1994-95
85.0
30.1
1.2
1.6
1993-94
84.8
27.3
1.2
1.7
1992-93
82.4
25.5
1.2
1.7
1991-92
79.1
20.9
1.2
1.9
The table shows that there in an increasing percentage of certified teachers every year. The gender parity index shows that there are more females in the teaching force at primary level both with academic qualifications and certified to teach, but it tends to decline each year since 1991, that is from 1.9 to 1.5 in 1998.
At provincial level the trends are similar, but in high ethnic population provinces, the percentage of certified teachers in creased significantly. Table 19 : shows the progression of certified teachers in some selected high ethnic population provinces. Phongsaly, Louangnamtha, Sekong and Attapeu certified teachers have increased significantly but the parity index also decreased . For Phongsaly the parity index for certified teachers decreased from 5.0 to 1.6. Louangnamtha and Attapeu have similar trends. Sekong, Bokeo and Saravanh remains more or less the same but in Oudomxay the parity index increased from 1.8 to 4.3. Overall trends of the parity index indicated that the number of female teachers are declining compare to the male teachers. This may due to the fact that fewer girls enrolled in the teacher training schools compare to the previous years, but still there are more female than male teachers in the primary education teaching staff. Though the parity index throughout the provinces are higher than 1, the trend seems to be decreasing.
Table 19: Comparison of the percentages of primary school teachers who are certified to teach according to national standards in selected high ethnic population provinces (1991-92 and 1997-98)
1991-92
1997-98
With academic Certified Gender Parity Index With academic Certified Gender Parity Index
qualification (1) to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
qualification (1) to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
Phongsaly TOTAL (MF)
70.9
5.9
1.4
5.0
72.3
26.1
1.3
1.6
Male (M)
58.3
1.8
59.4
18.3
Female (F)
80.2
8.9
79.3
30.2
Louang Namtha TOTAL (MF)
55.3
13.0
1.4
2.9
75.3
31.6
1.3
1.4
Male (M)
50.0
8.3
69.3
27.7
Female (F)
67.8
24.1
88.2
40.1
Oudomxay TOTAL (MF)
46.3
6.8
1.7
1.8
51.5
12.0
1.7
4.3
Male (M)
39.9
5.8
44.8
7.0
Female (F)
69.6
10.6
75.6
29.8
Bokeo TOTAL (MF)
64.1
5.9
1.3
2.4
74.5
13.3
1.2
2.5
Male (M)
60.5
4.5
71.8
9.8
Female (F)
76.6
10.9
83.0
24.1
Saravane TOTAL (MF)
82.5
23.9
1.2
1.9
81.5
35.9
1.1
1.6
Male (M)
76.8
18.4
78.1
29.3
Female (F)
93.9
34.8
87.9
47.9
Sekong TOTAL (MF)
68.9
10.1
1.3
1.2
63.1
32.1
1.5
1.3
Male (M)
62.7
9.6
53.5
28.8
Female (F)
83.3
11.1
79.6
37.8
Attapeu TOTAL (MF)
67.1
8.2
1.5
2.4
93.0
33.9
1.0
1.1
Male (M)
58.1
5.7
92.6
32.7
Female (F)
87.3
13.7
93.8
35.9
Source: EFATAB91&97, MOE 1999
Teachers
Perhaps most important "input" in education is the teachers. Teachers themselves require training to be effective with their students; they should have a solid grasp of the subject that they are teaching and of techniques to impart this knowledge. In an ethnically diverse country like the Lao PDR, language can be an important constraint for students to learn, especially at an early age. Table 20 shows the number of teachers by language family in the various levels of the school system. In addition to grouping the teachers by ethnic groups, the table shows the number of "untrained" teachers nationally. These are teachers that do not have the formal training needed to be a teacher but who work as teachers.
Table 20: Teachers, by Linguistic Group
School Level
Tai-Kadai
Hmong-Yao & Sino-Tibetan
Austro-Asiatic
National
Untrained
Total
Female
Total
Female
Total
Female
Total*
Female*
Total
Female
Pre-School
1,999
1,997
36
36
90
90
2,169
2,1
In Lao PDR there are 11,640 villages. In approximately 70% of them, children have access to some grades (but not all) of primary school. Among these schools, 64.2% of primary schools are incomplete, consisting of grade 1, grades 1-2, grades 1-3, or up to grade 4. Only 35.8% of the villages have access to a school offering complete primary school education, mostly in large villages close to the roads. In provinces with large ethnic populations, more than 60% of the schools offer incomplete primary education.
In remote villages of ethnic minority districts, most schools were one-teacher school, offering first grade primary education. Low access to complete primary schools together with the quality problems appear to contribute significantly to the high percentage of children that have never been to school and those who have been to school but who dropped out and don’t have the opportunity to finish their primary education.
As with other areas in education, the data on the location of schools and teachers in the Lao PDR is quite limited. Table 19 presents data on the location of primary schools by province.
The table also has information on the total number of primary schools and the number of incomplete primary schools. Finally, it includes a column for the percentage of villages without any primary school. Given the size of the country and the state of the roads, the presence of an incomplete school or the absence of any school is likely to be an absolute constraint of the children in many village to finish (or even start) primary education.
Table 16: The Location of Primary Schools, by Province
Province
% ethnic minorities
Number of villages
Number of primary schools Number of complete primary schools Number of incomplete primary schools % Temporary School Buildings* % of villages without schools
Vientiane Municipality
7.4%
486
468
359
109
31%
4%
Phongsaly
95.7%
663
380
54
326
85%
43%
Luangnamtha
97.7%
487
234
43
191
81%
52%
Oudomxay
90.9%
804
433
88
345
71%
46%
Bokeo
86.6%
397
167
55
112
68%
58%
Luangprabang
71.4%
1214
841
233
608
60%
31%
Huaphanh
70.0%
925
547
164
383
70%
41%
Xayaboury
81.0%
576
482
265
217
59%
16%
Xiengkhuang
55.7%
505
418
115
303
69%
17%
Vientiane Province
59.8%
498
423
229
194
32%
15%
Borikhamxay
59.8%
462
304
99
205
70%
34%
Khammuane
40.6%
874
513
177
336
65%
41%
Savannakhet
42.5%
1576
1096
422
674
54%
30%
Saravane
40.0%
731
423
93
330
70%
42%
Sekong
91.4%
278
115
22
93
86%
59%
Champasack
15.2%
896
745
319
426
22%
17%
Attapeu
63.1%
188
174
41
133
60%
7%
Xaysomboon S.R.
80.6%
137
103
41
62
68%
25%
Source: NSC Population Census and National EFA 2000, MOE 1999. *PES Annual Report 1996, Most of Incomplete Primary Schools are temporary buildings.
The data does suggest that as the percentage of ethnic minority population rises, the number of villages without schools or with incomplete schools also rises. It is important to interpret this result with the proper perspective—it by no means implies that the government is ignoring the needs of ethnic minorities. It may reflect the fact that ethnic minorities live in more remote and rural areas than the Lao-speaking population does.
It is to be underlined that all the schools do not offer the five grades of primary schooling and that some schools are therefore incomplete. If the school offers only the first 2 grades (28.6%), it is likely that students that registered in grade 2 will put an end to their schooling without ever reaching grade 3, since the nearest school offering grade 3 is usually too far away. In this case, it is the school system that fails, not the students who gives up. This case is different from that where grade 3 exist in the school and where the student decides to put an end to his/her studies.
It is therefore of interest to document, within the population those who "drop-out" from school in the course of primary education, the proportion of a) drop-out in the case where the child could not have extended his/her education due to the incompleteness of the schooling system, and b) drop-out in circumstances where the child could have prolonged his/her education. Table 17 : shows the distribution of the schools according to the grades offered in 1996-97.
Table 17: Percentage of schools by grade
School offering only Grade 1
School offering up to Grade 2
School offering up to Grade 3
School offering up to Grade 4
School offering the 5 Grade
Schools which data are not reliable
Total
821
2097
1395
424
2551
30
7318
11.2%
28.6%
19.1%
5.8%
34.8%
0.4%
100%
Access to lower secondary education is even more restricted. Lower secondary schools are sparsely distributed across rural districts, and children have to travel further from their village to attend the secondary school. The cost of transportation, lack of boarding facilities, and the opportunity cost for children in school and not working make it costly for the family to send their children to lower secondary school. Poverty remains an obstacle that limits the opportunity of those children who wish to attend secondary school.
6.2.1.7 Core Indicator 9 and 10: Percentage of primary school teachers having the required academic qualifications, and who are certified to teach according to national standards.
The Teacher Training Department defined teachers with academic qualifications are those teacher graduates of all system and those untrained teachers with level of education of lower secondary and above. Those teachers that are certified to teach are teachers who have gone through the 8+3 teacher training system, which is the current national standard for primary school teachers.
Table 18 : Percentage of primary school teachers having required academic qualifications and certified to teach for the whole country 1991-98.
Percentage of primary school teachers Gender Parity Index
With academic
qualification (1) Certified to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
1997-98
86.6
37.4
1.1
1.5
1996-97
88.5
34.7
1.1
1.5
1995-96
87.1
32.6
1.1
1.6
1994-95
85.0
30.1
1.2
1.6
1993-94
84.8
27.3
1.2
1.7
1992-93
82.4
25.5
1.2
1.7
1991-92
79.1
20.9
1.2
1.9
The table shows that there in an increasing percentage of certified teachers every year. The gender parity index shows that there are more females in the teaching force at primary level both with academic qualifications and certified to teach, but it tends to decline each year since 1991, that is from 1.9 to 1.5 in 1998.
At provincial level the trends are similar, but in high ethnic population provinces, the percentage of certified teachers in creased significantly. Table 19 : shows the progression of certified teachers in some selected high ethnic population provinces. Phongsaly, Louangnamtha, Sekong and Attapeu certified teachers have increased significantly but the parity index also decreased . For Phongsaly the parity index for certified teachers decreased from 5.0 to 1.6. Louangnamtha and Attapeu have similar trends. Sekong, Bokeo and Saravanh remains more or less the same but in Oudomxay the parity index increased from 1.8 to 4.3. Overall trends of the parity index indicated that the number of female teachers are declining compare to the male teachers. This may due to the fact that fewer girls enrolled in the teacher training schools compare to the previous years, but still there are more female than male teachers in the primary education teaching staff. Though the parity index throughout the provinces are higher than 1, the trend seems to be decreasing.
Table 19: Comparison of the percentages of primary school teachers who are certified to teach according to national standards in selected high ethnic population provinces (1991-92 and 1997-98)
1991-92
1997-98
With academic Certified Gender Parity Index With academic Certified Gender Parity Index
qualification (1) to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
qualification (1) to teach (2)
(1)
(2)
Phongsaly TOTAL (MF)
70.9
5.9
1.4
5.0
72.3
26.1
1.3
1.6
Male (M)
58.3
1.8
59.4
18.3
Female (F)
80.2
8.9
79.3
30.2
Louang Namtha TOTAL (MF)
55.3
13.0
1.4
2.9
75.3
31.6
1.3
1.4
Male (M)
50.0
8.3
69.3
27.7
Female (F)
67.8
24.1
88.2
40.1
Oudomxay TOTAL (MF)
46.3
6.8
1.7
1.8
51.5
12.0
1.7
4.3
Male (M)
39.9
5.8
44.8
7.0
Female (F)
69.6
10.6
75.6
29.8
Bokeo TOTAL (MF)
64.1
5.9
1.3
2.4
74.5
13.3
1.2
2.5
Male (M)
60.5
4.5
71.8
9.8
Female (F)
76.6
10.9
83.0
24.1
Saravane TOTAL (MF)
82.5
23.9
1.2
1.9
81.5
35.9
1.1
1.6
Male (M)
76.8
18.4
78.1
29.3
Female (F)
93.9
34.8
87.9
47.9
Sekong TOTAL (MF)
68.9
10.1
1.3
1.2
63.1
32.1
1.5
1.3
Male (M)
62.7
9.6
53.5
28.8
Female (F)
83.3
11.1
79.6
37.8
Attapeu TOTAL (MF)
67.1
8.2
1.5
2.4
93.0
33.9
1.0
1.1
Male (M)
58.1
5.7
92.6
32.7
Female (F)
87.3
13.7
93.8
35.9
Source: EFATAB91&97, MOE 1999
Teachers
Perhaps most important "input" in education is the teachers. Teachers themselves require training to be effective with their students; they should have a solid grasp of the subject that they are teaching and of techniques to impart this knowledge. In an ethnically diverse country like the Lao PDR, language can be an important constraint for students to learn, especially at an early age. Table 20 shows the number of teachers by language family in the various levels of the school system. In addition to grouping the teachers by ethnic groups, the table shows the number of "untrained" teachers nationally. These are teachers that do not have the formal training needed to be a teacher but who work as teachers.
Table 20: Teachers, by Linguistic Group
School Level
Tai-Kadai
Hmong-Yao & Sino-Tibetan
Austro-Asiatic
National
Untrained
Total
Female
Total
Female
Total
Female
Total*
Female*
Total
Female
Pre-School
1,999
1,997
36
36
90
90
2,169
2,1
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