There seems to be a clear link between formal education levels and ethnicity [4]. The Lao-Tai groups have received far more education than the other groups. Ethnic minority women (spouses) in particular lag behind. The Sino-Tibetan groups in particular seem to be less formally educated: in rural areas, 66% of the heads of household and 89% of their spouses among theses groups have no schooling according to the CFSVA. The language of instruction from pre-school onward is Lao and this contributes to the repetition, drop-out and absenteeism rates of children of ethnic groups; indeed in rural and remote areas many children repeat grade one once or twice simply to learn the language of instruction. According to the 2001 Participatory Poverty Assessment 'in many cases villages have consciously chosen not to participate in education because they feel it has no relevance to their lives’ [8]. The Government faces new challenges in delivering quality education to ethnic groups with more than 200 different mother tongues.