1. of multi grade Teaching in Lao PDR Mrs Varadune AMARATHITHADA
Regional Research Workshop: Promoting Quality Learning Through Enhanced Multi grade Teaching in the Asia Pacific Region April, 2014
Report on the status
of multi grade Teaching in Lao PDR
Prepared by:
Mrs Varadune AMARATHITHADA
Dr. Phanh CHAMPATHONG

2. Country Background Land area: 236,800 Km2 6.5 million people
49 ethnics, 6 main language families
Adult literacy rate yrs old 87 %

3. EFA and MDG Targets by 2015
Target by 2015 NER 98% Repetition 2% Dropout 2% Survival 95%
Achievement
NER %
Repetition %
Dropout %
Survival % S

4. Achievement against the targets

5. What is“small school” and “multi grade school” in Lao PDR?
“Small school” can be
“Incomplete school” means schools which do not offer full five grade(grade 1, grade 1-2 or grade or up to grade 4) and number of students less than 50.
“Small complete school” offering full five grade but consist of 3-4 classrooms, number of students about and have 1 principal.
Multigrade school:
School using multigrade teaching, a teaching pedagogy that all pupils with different grades level, ages and abilities are taught simultaneously in the same classrooms. It can be either complete or incomplete school.

6. No
Provinces
No. of schools
No. of one school Teacher %
No. of two school
No. of three school teachers
teachers 1
Vientiane Capital
489 15 3 20 4 24 5 2
Phongsaly
523
235 45
115 22 78
Luangnamtha
400
112 28
104 26 36 9
Oudomxay
482 87 18 96
Bokeo
256 72   56
 22 51
 20 6
Luangprabang
738
221
 30
118
 16
111
 15 7
Houaphanh
763
312
 41
175
 23
130
 17 8
Sayabouly
409 16  4
 11 53
 13
Xiengkhuang
473
 37 57
 12 33  7 10
Vientiane Province
486 63 49
 10 39  8 11
Bolikhamxay
318 48 70 41 12
Khammouane
607
200
 33
121 73 13
Savannakhet
1.207
447
169
 14 14
Saravane
579
208
 36
145
 25 75
Sekong
222 44 89
 40
Champasack
760
137
 18
152 84 17
Attapeu
190 38 76 30
Total:
8.902
2.43
 27
1.657
19 
1.102
schools are mostly small in remote areas (about 7-10 students in each grade) . Number of 1 to 3 school teachers covering 58.29% of which 1 school teacher counted to 27.29%.

7. To provide a complete primary educational cycle
MOES invests on building small size schools to improve and expand primary educational network to rural areas by using multigrade teaching approach to upgrade incomplete school to offer a complete primary educational cycle from grade one to grade five

8. No of multi-grade classrooms 7,683 7,977 8,604 9,105 9,368 9,347
Number of multigrade classrooms from 2007 to 2012
Description
No of schools
8,830
8,871
8,968
8,902
8,912
8,927
No of classrooms
29,769
30,107
31,648
31,057
31,957
32,745
No of multi-grade classrooms
7,683
7,977
8,604
9,105
9,368
9,347
% multi-grade classroom
25.8
26.5 27 29
28.50

9. No. of MTG classrooms have been increased from 26. 5% in 2008 to 28
No. of MTG classrooms have been increased from 26.5% in 2008 to 28.5% in 2013

10. Realizing complete & effective primary education
Requires an Education Strategy that:
make efficient use of existing educational resources
adopts innovative methods
adopts practical and low cost pedagogy entered on multigrade teaching
to meet the needs of unreached and the marginalized children living in rural, remote, mountainous and less populated areas and helps to accelerate the achievement of universal quality education for all.

11. Regulatory and Policy Frameworks
The Lao Constitution (1991) and the Education Law (2007) recognize:
The right of all citizens to education
Promotion the principle of compulsory education and the development of education, paying specific attention to ethnic groups, women, the poor and disadvantaged, disabled and especially-talented children.

12. Regulatory and Policy Framework (cont’)
Prime Ministerial Decree No. 138/PM/1996 on Compulsory Education.
“all Lao citizens at the age of six year olds should be provided with equitable access to primary education and that all pupils have to be registered for schooling and complete the primary curriculum. These children have to continue study and are not allowed to quit or drop out of school until they are 14 year of age”.

13. Regulatory and Policy Framework (cont’)
Ministerial Directive No. 181/MOE.PPE/10 dated 01 Mar, 2010 was issued to ensure that all children have access to schooling through the use of multi-grade teaching.
This Directive also affirms that Provincial Education Services have to upgrade incomplete schools in order to provide the full five grade levels so they become complete schools.
 All primary schools receive the unit cost of 100,000 kips/students.

14. Regulatory and Policy Framework: Incentive Policy(cont’)
Prime Ministerial Decree No. 110/PM.01 dated 8 June, 2001 on incentive:
providing supplement subsistence allowances for multi grade teachers
adding 25 percent on top of their existing basic salary for those who teach two grade classes
offering 50 percent increase for those who teach three grades.
In accordance with Ministerial Directive No. 940/MOE.DTE dated 25 June, 2001
If teachers work in very remote and hardship areas, they will also still receive an additional supplement subsistence allowance known as the “Special teaching in hardship conditions payment” under Prime Ministerial No. 237/PM.98 dated 21 December, 1998.

15. Teacher Issues
Professional standards for stocks teachers can not meet the target setting in Teacher Education Strategy ;
Although much of policy is in place for demand based recruitment and deployment to remote & underserved areas, there continues to be stark distortion in teacher supply, resulting in a scarcity in remote schools and oversupply in the towns.
Teachers still require support to continue to develop as professionals and improve their understanding of children’s learning, subject knowledge and repertoire of teaching skills/pedagogy

16. Teacher Recruitment & Deployment
Prime Ministerial Decree No. 117 on Teacher
Requiring teachers supported by scholarships to sign an agreement to take up their post within the identified institution; PESS and TEIs to implement demand-based selection at the school level for quota positions.
Setting student teacher ratio for pre and primary level : 34 students/1teacher; teaching hours: not over 25 hours per week. In fact the student teacher ratio is 26 student/1.

17. Teacher Recruitment & Deployment (cont’)
The process for supplying teachers is from the school level to DESB-PESS – MOES. Quota is given in aligning with the approval budget of National Assembly. To fill the post, applicants need to sit for examination, except the contracted student teachers.

18. How primary teacher trained for multi grade teaching?
Pre service
In service
Integrated in primary teacher curriculum, in Teaching methodology group (3 credits, 48 hrs)
Teaching Practicum: classroom experience (6 credits, 96 hrs), teaching practice (20 credits 320hrs), action research (4 credits, 64 hrs)
multi grade classrooms were built and used as demonstration school in 3 TTCs for teaching practice while the other conduct practicum in school network.
Integrated in teacher upgrading program and in-service training workshop
VEDC training to encourage community participation in education
Master teachers were trained to deliver the in-service training
PA were recruited and trained to support teachers at school

19. Curriculum Development
Both multigrade and monograde teaching in Lao PDR use the same National curriculum and textbooks. The time table of multigrade teaching is provided by the District Education and Sports Bureau. 20% of curriculum is given for adapting to local context.
Schools could use the supplementary textbooks, especially designed for multigrade teaching in addition to the national textbooks.

20. Teaching and Learning materials
The Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES) is the key organization to develop curricula, teaching-learning materials and teaching aids for general education.
The above developed materials are also used in multigrade schools, but the timetable of teaching-learning is different .

21. Thanks