Japan, WFP provide food for rural primary schools

Thanks to the generosity of the Japanese government and people, primary schools in the north and south of Laos will become more attractive to local families, boosting the enrolment of girls in rural areas.

Deputy Minister of Education Lytou Bouapao made the comment yesterday as he addressed media at a ceremony to receive canned fish given by the government of Japan for distribution to rural schools by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Laos.

Mr Lytou said rural children, especially girls, found school attendance difficult because they lacked adequate clothing and food. Instead, many of the children spent their days helping their families with farm work.

Under the WFP School Meals Programme, with the close cooperation of the Ministry of Education, thousands of primary school children in Phongsaly, Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Saravan, Xekong and Attapeu provinces now have access to better education.

“The poor condition of education in rural and mountainous areas of Laos is a big problem for the development of the country,” Mr Lytou said.

The ministry has conducted studies to identify factors leading to the low enrolment of girls in schools. But the results of the studies are limited in developing effective measures to improve the situation and more specific studies are required.

According to a 2005 report from the ministry, 30 percent of girls aged 6-25 have never attended school.

In urban areas the percentage of boys and girls who have never attended school was 5 percent and 11 percent respectively, but it was 30 percent for boys and 49 percent for girls in rural areas.

“The data indicate that serious problems still exist in rural areas and in the education of girls. For this reason, an attempt was made to make an in-depth study to identify the factors contributing to the low enrolment of rural girls,” Mr Lytou said.

Since the programme has been run in the targeted provinces, the number of rural girls attending school has risen to 90 percent.

The programme encou-rages children to attend school by providing daily mid-morning snacks made from a vitamin and mineral fortified corn-soya blend, sugar and oil.

Mr Lytou strongly believes the programme is beneficial and will help children to concentrate during classes.

There are still 10 percent of children aged 4-6 who do not attend school. Changing this is the ministry’s challenge for the future.

The ministry will work with its partners to achieve its goal of education for all by 2015.

WFP Deputy Country Director and Officer in Charge in Laos, Ms Elisabeth Faure, said the programme is currently distributing thousands of cans of fish to 90,000 children in more than 1,000 WFP-assisted schools in Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Luang Namtha provinces.

Ms Faure said the programme is also providing rice and iodised salt to help children and their families in their decision to pursue an education.

In 2008, WFP provided 11,319 metric tonnes of food to 479,210 people in all 16 provinces of Laos.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. This year its goal was to feed 108 million people around the world.

Japanese Ambassador to Laos Masaaki Miyashita said the government of Japan has worked with the government and people of Laos through various assistance projects and programmes to achieve development goals.

“Our cooperation is another goal in this successful partnership. Japan has supported school feeding since 2002,” said Mr Miyashita.

The government of Laos has set national socio-economic development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, for achievement by 2015, aiming to graduate from the UN’s list of least developed countries by 2020.

“Our cooperation through WFP is one of them,” Mr Miyashita said.

By Phaisythong Chandara
January 02, 2010