By Yangxia LEE Ministry of Education 2 September 2008 Teacher Training and Multigrade Schools in Remote and Ethnic Areas Lao PDR Reach the Unreached Meeting 2-4 September 2008, BKK By Yangxia LEE Ministry of Education 2 September 2008

I. Teacher Training Background: Shortage of Teachers in Remote and Ethnic Areas Enrollment rate is low in the Remote and Ethnics Areas, especially girls Education Law, EFA, MGD, NGPES,… Goals Implementation The Basic Education (Girls) Project was implemented in 52 districts of 11 provinces that abundant by ethnicity.

Pre-service Teacher Training LEMTEP Sandwich Style Pre-service Structure designed: TTC Semester-based study Community-based learning In-service Workshops for TTC lecturers 8+3 Curriculum adapted for ethnic groups; New 5+4 Program: Children Graduated Grade 8 5+4 also accepted for areas that only grade 5 graduated children. 1 bridging year for Lower Secondary General Education Special programme: started school earlier (August in every school year calendar)

Cohort Number of Trainees Female Male 1 70 44 26 2 160 126 34 3 145 97 Pre-service teacher trainees recruited under (LABEP) AusAID Cohort Number of Trainees Female Male 1 70 44 26 2 160 126 34 3 145 97 48 Pre-service teacher trainees recruited under BEGP Loan 1621-Lao (SF) Cohort Number of Trainees Female Male 4 111 59 52 Total 486 326 160

Pedagogical Advisors PAs conducted In-Service Program & Supported LEMTEP PA Handbook developed (1,000 copies) 77 PAs recruited, trained & deployed; 55 PAs supported 52 PAs: 48 ethnic ; 33 (66%) Female, mainly ethnic groups

II. Multigrade Teaching Multigrade Schools Construction under BEGP: 512 schools constructed including furniture 57 5-classroom schools 138 3-classroom schools 317 2-classroom schools 3 2-classrooms schools for TTCs Water Supplies being provided to all schools Many more Multigrade Schools are also constructed by different projects

In-service Teacher Training: Four Sets of Teacher Competencies & Concept Paper Developed Multigrade Pre-service & In-service Teaching ethnic Girls Pre-service & In-service Curriculum Writers identified for training Master Trainers DGE & Provincial Master Trainers trained Trainers trained to deliver in-service training to teachers Teachers trained on Supplementary Materials and Multigrade Teaching In-service Teacher Training Evaluation Conducted

Multigrade and Supplementary Materials Multigrade, Lao as a Second Language, Life Skills 21 Books developed – Teacher Guides; Student Books; Games Book 630,549 Books printed Distributed to 11 provinces, 52 districts and 2901 schools 512 were project schools A CD on Multigrade Teaching and Community Mobilization was developed and distributed to the every province of the country Some NGO Projects also receive licence to reprint and use the supplementary materials for teaching ethnic children in other sites of the country

Student Supplementary Learning Materials & Teachers Guides (Including Multigrade Teaching and Learning Materials)

III. Ethnic Education Boarding School Programme 17 boarding schools in 14 provinces 3 schools are under the care of the Ministry of Education 13 schools are managed by the provinces 2008-2009, the Government provides 170 more scholarships to ethnic children to study M3 and M4 at the Talent and Ethnic Secondary Education School at the campus of the National University of Laos, Dongdok. More ethnic boarding schools will be expanded in district level according to its density of ethnicity The government provides supports for food, accommodation, clothes, learning materials, health care and transportation costs to those children.

IV. Gender Equality in Education Gender Training Awareness Workshops: Senior educators: MOE PES DEB School cluster teachers and Principals Trainers of teacher training institutions Curriculum developers both formal and non formal education on mainstreaming Gender Concepts and Perspectives into the education planning, management and the teaching and learning process. Researches, studies and case studies related to gender equality in education also are conducted to provide references for educational planning

Overall Achievements Multigrade teaching/learning for ethnic groups has a foothold in Laos More student centred teaching/learning approaches have been introduced The design of more effective and efficient learning materials is now understood An approach to ethnic education in Grades 1-5 and ethnic teacher education have been successfully trialled Significant human resource development and materials developed for ethnic education has been achieved

Average Annual Enrolment Growth 1999/00 to 2006/07

Average Annual increase in Survival Rate to Grade 3 Male Female BEGP All Districts of Province 2.7% 2.3% All Lao Districts 1.3% 1.0%

BEGP All Districts of Province 2.8% 2.4% Average Annual increase in Survival Rate to Grade 5 Male Female BEGP All Districts of Province 2.8% 2.4% All Lao Districts 1.3% 1.1%

Challenge Future Plan: Sustainable issue: continuing the project best practices (Ethnic Teacher Training and Multigrade Teaching) Best practices is followed and monitored to assess the education impacts Best practices become programme and policy Future Plan: The Center for Promotion of Education for Women-Ethnic-Disabled People was established: Policy Guidelines and Strategies related to promoting education for women, girls, ethnic and disabled people will be developed Ethnic Teacher professionals will be monitored and assessed for providing recommendations to the Government Ethnic Boarding Schools in the whole country will be assessed for long term recruitment and deployment purposes