1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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)

4. 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

6. 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

8. II. Multigrade Teaching
Multigrade Schools Construction under BEGP:
512 schools constructed including furniture
classroom schools
classroom schools
classroom schools
classrooms schools for TTCs
Water Supplies being provided to all schools
Many more Multigrade Schools are also constructed by different projects

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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
, 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. Average Annual Enrolment Growth 1999/00 to 2006/07

16. 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%

17. 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%

19. 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