Lao Voices

I think when we hear or read the news about the education system in Laos, it’s mostly numbers given to us, of what the percentage of students are still in school, the number of dropped out, and the percentage of staying in school seems to decrease as the age of the students increase. For most of us after reading it, we might feel sad that it’s that way for Laotian living in Laos but life is full of obstacle everywhere that many of us have to face on a day-to-day basis. For some of us, the sadness might linger because we’ve a strong tie to Laos, that’s where our roots are, and that feeling is edging inside and making us want to do something about it, making us want to do more and want to help.

For some of us, there’s not a lot that we can do, the fact is we’re still struggling to feed our family, life is not any better here in the US, this I can understand; I’d seen my parents struggled trying to put food on the table, and being the first generation Laotian American, many of us share what it was like to have to attend school in bad side of town that don’t have enough funding, not up to date state of the art equipments, the tales of getting beat up because we look different, and the list goes on, but thank goodness that we still have the opportunity to better ourselves in education, at least the US government is very generous in their funding to the school system here in the US, and some might think that it’s not enough, but in comparison to Laos, I think it’s plentiful.

I recall from the old Laoplanet.net forum which I miss dearly, many of us came to know one another or read what was posted because we all share things in common of what we do that other groups might not understand, if nothing else, we all share what it’s like to be Laotian, to hear what other Laotians have to say, and sometimes we might have the need to express our opinion, I would love to hear your opinion on this matter, but what ever type of readers you are, silent or opinionated, I thank you for reading.

I dare not say that all news are good news, and when it comes to schooling in Laos, it’s depressing, the percentage of students staying in school decreased as they get older and the reason varies from lack of funding from the Lao government, to poverty that older children having to help their parents to make a living, having to leave school at a young age to enter the work force. Life is hard everywhere, but its worse in Laos. Below is the news from VOA News on the school system in Laos.

By Songrit PonNgern, 9/20/2007

Laos education officials say over 50,000 elementary and secondary-school students dropped out during the 2006-07 academic year. The most significant cause is reportedly budget shortage that prevents the government from extending educational opportunities to students in rural areas.

Another cause is poverty. A lot of parents cannot afford to send their children to school, and prefer to keep them at home to help out with farm work.

On the government side, officials say they are committed to make education reach all children. The government has approved an increase in education funding from 12% to 18% of the national budget. For the current academic year, aiming to extend education to very poor and remote ethnic areas by increasing the number of teachers and developing teaching quality.

Government statistics show there are around 49,000 teachers nationwide, with more than 6,200 administrative and support personnel. There are reportedly some 1.4 million students attending some 8,740 elementary schools, some 1,009 secondary schools, and around 30 vocational and universities throughout the nation.

For more details in Lao, listen to report here.

For those that don’t understand Lao language, children between the ages of 6-10, 86% get to attend elementary school, by the beginning of secondary school, only 53%, and 35% by the end of secondary school, with about 40,000 students completing secondary school. Only 7,000 will be able to further their education through the government-funded programs, others would have to pay for it themselves, and for those that don’t have money, they then have to enter the work force. Many teachers are paid below the average cost of living due to lack of funding from the government, and many are forced to leave their teaching profession for another job in order to feed their family.