Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0213/02138.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 572 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02138}
$Pretitle{258}
$Title{Laos
Chapter 5B.   Organization and Operation of the School System}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{schools
government
years
education
school
secondary
lao
rural
public
elementary}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Laos
Book:        Laos, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 5B.   Organization and Operation of the School System

     The public education system was administered by the Ministry of National
Education, and its organization followed the French pattern. Primary education
was divided into two cycles of three years each. There were four types of
schools at this level: district group elementary schools that provided a full
six-year course; elementary schools that provided more than three grades but
usually fewer than six; village primary schools, often one-class schools,
offering a course of one, two, or three years' duration; and rural centers of
community education, which had Buddhist monks or village volunteers as
teachers and which gave the first years of the primary school course. Unlike
the teachers in the other classes of elementary schools, the teachers in rural
centers of community education were not regular employees of the Ministry of
National Education but were given a small monthly allowance by the ministry.
In addition, there were private elementary schools for the urban minority
communities, usually going through the third year, although some offered the
full six years. At the end of six years of study in the primary school, pupils
might take an examination for the primary school leaving certificate, a status
symbol and credential for immediate employment. Pupils between eleven and
thirteen might take the entrance examination for secondary schools and, if
over age fourteen, the entrance examination for the teacher training college.

     In 1955 there were in the country 944 public elementary schools, ranging
from one to twelve classrooms in size. In school year 1969/70 there were 3,063
public elementary schools with an enrollment of 199,111 pupils. In the late
1960s and early 1970s enrollment in elementary education was increasing at a
rate of approximately 10 percent a year. To provide facilities for the rapidly
increasing number of public school students, the ministries of national
education and rural affairs had between 1955 and 1970 constructed and repaired
over 3,500 elementary school classrooms, with assistance from the United
States; of this total, about 2,500 classrooms were in rural areas.

     The United States has also helped the Ministry of National Education to
write, print, and distribute over 3 million textbooks in the Lao language and
to publish eighty-four elementary texts. Despite the substantial steps taken
to create and improve the facilities for elementary education, as of mid-1971
additional classrooms were needed for the later elementary level of education
after the fourth grade.

     General secondary education was offered in a seven-year program. As of
mid-1971 there were twenty public secondary schools. Six of these offered a
full seven years of secondary education. These six schools adhered closely to
the French concept and system of education. The Ministry of National Education
described this system of secondary education as established for a small elite
group of Laotians with the mission of acting as liaison with the modern world.
About 1,100 students annually completed seven-year secondary school training
and a full thirteen years of education. All such students are offered
scholarships for advanced study in France; most go, and few return.

     In 1967 the Ministry of National Education, with assistance from the
United States government and the University of Hawaii, established the first
of three comprehensive high schools for grades seven through ten. In 1969 and
1970 two more comprehensive high schools were opened. In mid-1971 the three
schools enrolled 760 students.

     Courses in the comprehensive high schools were taught in the Lao
language, and the curriculum was designed to meet the need for personnel in
the beginning and middle-level management and technical positions in
government and in business as well as to prepare students for advanced study
in professional fields. The schools had programs for students in academic
subjects, agriculture, the industrial arts, business and clerical skills, and
home economics. The curriculum was being extended to include grades eleven
through thirteen. A total of six such schools was planned. The programs in the
other public secondary schools in the country will gradually be converted to
follow the example of the comprehensive high schools.

     In addition to the public secondary schools, there were six small private
secondary schools situated near Vientiane. Total public secondary school
enrollment had nearly doubled, from 3,300 in 1965/66 to 6,352 in 1969/70;
however, only 10 percent of students completing primary schools could be
admitted into the secondary and technical schools. After four years students
who passed qualifying examinations for admission to the upper classes could
enter a lycee that offered the final three years of the secondary program.
Only one in 300 completed the secondary program.

     The traditional curriculum was reformed in 1962 to emphasize the home,
religion, community, and the relationship of the community to the nation. Lao
was used in most elementary schools as the medium of instruction, although
students also studied French. In secondary schools, however, except for the
comprehensive high schools, the language of instruction was French. Lao
occupied a position similar to that of a first foreign language in Western
nations, and English was second; Pali, the language used in sacred Buddhist
writing, occupied a place similar to Latin and Greek in Western schools. The
ordinary secondary school curriculum was an expansion of that in primary
schools and was not yet adapted fully to the cultural, social, and economic
needs of present-day Laotians.

     Teacher training for the upper elementary and secondary grades was
provided at the Upper School of Pedagogy at Dong Dok near Vientiane. Over
one-half of the 1,296 students at Dong Dok, mainly those in the Lao and
English sections, were not required to take entrance examinations in French,
indicating the extent to which the government was moving toward the use of Lao
as a medium of instruction. In addition, there were eight teacher training
schools, where examinations in French were not required. These institutions
were all basically secondary schools, offering work that prepared teachers
only for the beginning levels. Students from these schools had completed, at
the most, six years of elementary education and from two to four years of
professional training. The enrollment in teacher training schools had
increased from 2,474 in 1968/69 to 3,036 in 1969/70.

     The expansion of teacher training facilities had not kept pace with the
demand for teachers. A major annual problem for the Royal Lao Government was
the requirement for the inclusion in the national budget of payment of
salaries of ever-increasing numbers of teachers. Annual inservice training
courses had been attended by over 5,000 teachers since 1964, or over 80
percent of the number of elementary school teachers in the country. In
addition, educational personnel had participated in 989 training programs.
Most participants were sent for training courses in Thailand, including many
short-term study programs for ten to twelve weeks during vacation periods, in
various fields of specialization.

     As instruction in the Lao language increased at the normal school and
secondary levels, emphasis was shifting from the production of elementary
textbooks to teacher-training and secondary texts. A total of fifteen
teacher-training textbooks had been written and published. The Lao faculty of
th