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EDUCATIONAL
REFORM IN LAO P.D.R. |
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The initiatives of second educational reform in Lao PDR were officially adopted in 1987 when the Government approved a resolution on the strategy of education for now until year 2000. The necessity of educational reform was closely linked to the implementation of the policy of "the New Thinking", aimed at all round renovation of political, economic, social and cultural life of society pursuing the mechanism of market economy and extending the international economic cooperation. However, the reform process was entering full operation only last five years ago. This paper will be describing the overall goals, process of reform, pointing out the main achievements, the weak points, and disclosing some lessons learned. Concerning the particular topic of educational reform, the focus will be laid on the renewal of school curriculum as inseparable component of the quality of education. I. OVERALL STATUS OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM 1. Strategies of Education Development for Year 2000 The strategies of education for year 2000 were the basic policy of the educational reform for the last decade of the 20th century. It was determined five educational goals as follows: To complete universalization of primary education for young people at the age from 6 to 14, upgrade secondary education for key officials and administrators; and to totally eradicate illiteracy of the population relapsed into neo-illiteracy; To extend pre-school education and reform
general education, covering 11 years of schooling through curriculum
renewal which provides the general knowledge, work orientation,
training of basic vocational skills in such a way as school graduates
could take part in the work process and in the local and national
construction; To expand access to school for population in remote, isolated and mountainous areas, and to train administrators, managers, scientists and teachers from ethnic minority groups; To train and upgrade qualifications of educational managers and teachers who acquired the subject knowledge and pedagogy in depth, were inculcated in sound moral qualities and able to perform assigned tasks with responsibility. Meanwhile, the general goal of educational
reform is to prepare young generation with a scientific world viewpoint,
spirit of patriotism, and sense of solidarity with all Lao multi-ethnic
people and the people all over the world. It should be trained as
good citizens who: recognize the rights, interests and duties; are
able to preserve and promote the finest national tradition and culture;
have a consciousness of self-reliance and self-sufficiency; are
economical and able to combine the individual and public interests;
possess the general, scientific and technological knowledge, and
vocational skills; are well-disciplined, responsible for job and
commitment; have a good health, creative thinking, healthy lifestyle;are
ready to take part in the cause of the national development. Emphasis is placed on the improvement of the quality of education with a view to progressively upgrading national education to international standards, on the complementarity of education within and outside the country, and the relevance of education to family, social and economic life. It is equally necessary to increase the efficiency of educational management by restructuring the administration and management of the system according to the policy of decentralization. 2. Implementation Approaches In order to ensure the effective implementation of educational reform, the following measures were undertaken: Organizing annual national meeting of high educational officials The national meeting on education is ordinarily convened and held under chairmanship of Minister of Education during school vacation in July-August. During the session the high officials of MOE, heads of provincial education services and the rector, deans of faculties of university, directors of teacher training colleges review the status of education, its achievements, strengths, weakness, lessons learned, and deliberate the annual plan and budget for educational development. The meeting also discusses and adopts the strategies of education for the long-term period, covering five, ten or twenty years. Setting up of a steering committee for policy decision making toward the implementation of programs/projects The steering committee is chaired by Minister of Education, and comprises vice-ministers, the directors of all MOE departments, rector of university. It convenes a meeting each three month to scrutinize all the issues related to the implementation of the programs/projects. Drawing up of the programs/projects for educational reform
For achieving the success for the said programs, it is implemented 27 projects amounted to more than 220 million US$. The main projects are Education Development Project-I supported by the World Bank, Norway Government, Switzerland Development Agency, Lao Government contribution and community participation; Education Quality Improvement Project-I, supported by ADB, Norway Government and Lao Government; and Basic Education for Girls Project supported by ADB, AusAID, Norway Government and Lao Government. Setting up of mechanisms of implementation and coordination At central level, the Department of Planning and Cooperation is responsible for overall process of coordination. There are various working groups playing the role of determination the tasks and activities for each component of the projects. Implementations Units were established within each concerned Department and institution. At grassroots level, the provincial education services and district education bureaus develop their plan in conformity with the national strategic plan by taking into account the real context of the provinces/districts. On one hand, they submit the plan to MOE, on the other hand, the plan should be approved by the governors. They also mobilize all education stakeholders to participate in the reform process. 3. Achievements by Development Areas 1) General Education Development Preschool Education There are 769 cr?ches and kindergartens with about 38,000 children and 2,200 educators in whole country. Most of kindergartens were established within the state offices and factories. Some of them are belonging to private owners. All kindergartens are operating and pursuing the national curriculum guidelines. Preschool education play important role in preparation of the children with intellectual, physical and socio-emotional readiness for further study in primary schools. The practical experiences pointed out the children inculcated in kindergartens possessed more intellectual capabilities, and they are darer in self-expression and more active in learning in comparison with their schoolmates who never educated in the kindergartens. Such learning performance brought up the satisfaction to the parents and caregivers, as well as the educators. General Education At the present, there are 8,160 primary schools with 832,000 pupils and 27,600 teachers, increased 10% in comparison to five years ago. The net enrollment rate made up 77.3%. Over last five years, more than 389,000 children graduated primary education. The number of lower secondary schools was 590 with 184,000 students, increased 62%, and 9,970 teachers, increased 29%. Over five years, about156,000 students graduated lower secondary level. There are 222 upper secondary schools with 77,200 students and 2,100 teachers. More than 10 thousand students graduated this education level each year. Over five years, the number of school graduates comprised 61,600. In general, over last five years, the general education has reached significant success in quantitative and qualitative dimension. The new school curriculum was developed and implemented nation-wide. The textbooks, teacher's guides and other instructional materials were produced and distributed to schools. All teachers of primary and lower secondary schools were trained on organizing the implementation of new curriculum. The teaching and learning process is gradually improved. Supervisory mechanism was established. Actually, there are 523 pedagogical advisors of primary education and 144 pedagogical advisers of secondary education who organize monitoring, stimulation, supervision, control and provide academic assistance, guidance, suggestions and recommendations to teachers in their teaching carrier. At the same time, in order to ensure the smooth communication, coordination and cooperation, and sharing best teaching experiences and resources among teachers in rural areas, 145 school clusters were set up. Lao Government has paid priority to the expansion of education in the remote, rural, isolated and mountainous areas, which are homeland of ethnic minority groups. In this purpose, 18 boarding schools were constructed, and are operating to provide accommodations and education for 10,000 disadvantaged children from the said areas. The multigrade teaching approaches are broadly used. Thanks to improved teacher utilization, the students - teacher ratio now is 30:1 at primary and 22:1 at secondary level. The problem related to the difficulty of learning Lao as language of instruction has been decided by introducing new approach, called concentrated language encounter (CLE), to teaching Lao as second language for children whose mother tongue is other than Lao. CLE technique was successfully tried out in limited school in ethnic minority areas. It proved to be effective and MOE decided to apply in the target areas of basic education for girls and ethnic minority groups project. The role of private education was also enhanced. Today, it could share the burden of the national education by accepting 25,500 pupils, which increased by 8.4% in comparison to 5 years ago. The education for monks was also promoted and extended through operation of a monk-teacher training college and some secondary schools under direction of the Office for Monk Education. The curriculum for monk education was reviewed and revised to ensure the balance of the Buddhist knowledge, languages, literature, arts and sciences. The significant number of monks received education in temple's schools undertook teaching profession. According to the evaluation findings
on the implementation of new curriculum (1997, 1998) and assessment
of student learning outcomes (1999), all schools of general education
have organized teaching and learning in accordance with renewed
curriculum; most of students have textbooks, teachers use teaching
manuals and other instructional materials and gradually change teaching
approaches to activity-based and participatory learning; school
principals are able to manage the curriculum implementation through
sharing of teaching hours, giving guidance on preparation of lesson
plans, use of low-cost teaching aids and new tools of measurement
and evaluation. The students graduated every educational level possessed
adequate knowledge, skills and attitudes prescribed in curriculum
objectives. Teachers are regarded as important agents in determining the quality of education. Over the period of educational reform, teacher education was going on in direction of decreasing the number of teacher training institutions from 59 in 1991 to 10 in 2000. This action was taken in responding to realistic financial status, actual management and training quality assurance. Meanwhile, the training structure has been considerably reorganized. There are two programs: 8+3 and 11+1 for training of teachers of primary school who should be able to teach all subjects. The program 11+3 with three options: natural sciences, social sciences and foreign languages is organized for preparation of teachers of lower secondary school, who should be able to teach all subjects included in the core option with one of four free option subjects: physical education, technology, drawing/painting and music/dancing. The curricula of teacher education were also developed and implemented. The philosophy of teacher education stated: reform of teacher education is particularly crucial, in which well-prepared teachers are the keys to the success of any new educational program. The teacher training is aimed to develop teachers who are loyal to the country, well-disciplined, well-trained and well-qualified…(who will) dedicate themselves to their pupils and be capable of fulfilling the task assigned to them by the nation. Teachers need not only to be good people, responsible citizens, role models, and community leaders. They also need to be competent in their subject field(s) as well. Most teachers have been trained at the national or local institution. They bring well-practical teaching strategies and a familiarity with nationally produced curricula. To warranty effective school teaching, teacher trainees have at least 50% of their training in courses combining focus on the content and pedagogy of the school curriculum. In principle, most teachers, trained over current reform period, pursued new curriculum, the structure of which consisted of pedagogic subjects and general knowledge subjects. The pedagogic subjects are directed to equip the trainees with the knowledge on the contents necessary for their teaching, understanding of roles and responsibility of teacher, skills of using technique of effective teaching. These subjects comprise: General pedagogy: adolescence development, pedagogic psychology, curriculum, teaching and learning, teaching aids, measurement and evaluation, education innovation, school management, pedagogic guidance; Method of teaching of different academic
subjects learnt in schools of general education; and The general knowledge subjects concern with academic knowledge, which aimed at the development in trainees adequate understanding and right viewpoint to problem solving, the capability to be adapted to social environment, to happily live in society, and self-development. The structure of curricula is arranged by 41% for pedagogic subjects, and 59% for general subjects. Concerning the teaching and learning strategies, the training was shifted from lecture based to active pedagogy: activity-based learning, improving questioning, using illustrations effectively, group discussion, and application to daily life. The curricula of teacher education were closely linked to the school curriculum. Five years ago unqualified and underqualified teachers were 8,500, made up 38% out of whole teachers of primary school. Today more than 4,000 teachers received in-service training on upgrading qualifications. Consequently, the percentage of unqualified teachers remained 20%. As a result, the learning outcomes of students in the classrooms of the said teachers were improved, the repetition rate and dropout rate considerably reduced. In addition, 4,500 teachers were trained on method of multigrade teaching to work in remote, isolated and mountainous areas. It is fair noting that the reform of teacher education enabled to enhance the quality of education in teacher training colleges and schools of general education. 3) Non-Formal Education Development A huge endeavor was exerted to strengthening the organization of management of adult and non-formal education, its curriculum development, teaching and learning process in order to eradicate illiteracy and upgrade educational equivalency, and to cover its main characteristics so target populations gain the maximum benefit possible including: combining NFE with vocational training; target populations assuming some responsibility for the organization of activities; responding to the needs of individuals, community and society with content suitable for social and economic development; promoting self-reliance, sufficiency; ensuring the organization is well coordinated, to enhance continuity and stability. Over last five years, 191,000 people, including 109,000 women, at the age of 15-40 were literate, made up 83% of target group. More than 64,000 literates have upgraded education at primary level, 4,000 graduated lower secondary and 5,900 completed program of upper secondary education equivalency. More than 6,600 adults gained job skills through vocational courses on weaving, sewing, food processing, construction works, carpentry, fish breeding, gardening. The number of NFE centers and community learning centers (CLC) have increased to 200. In recent years CLC have played the important role in implementation of community NFE activities: organization of both formal and non-formal instruction; organization of resident's training on vocational skills, health care, agricultural works; provision of a meeting place for local authorities, mass and social organizations, and so on; and, organization of exhibitions, sale of community products or other activities of a collective nature. It is worth noting more than 300 civil servants have improved their English language proficiency through NFE sub-sectors in respond to the requirements of international communication. 4) Vocational-Technical and Higher Education Development The landmark of the reform of higher education was the establishment of the national university of Laos (NUOL) by associating 10 higher education institutions in 1996-97. Today, there are 9 faculties. The new curricula of the university have been developed and implemented since 1998. A Bachelor curriculum was designed for each department so that more diploma and university students have been admitted to undertake their studies. The programs of vocational education was also renovated, shifting from 8+2 to 8+3 structure for vocational training, and from 11+3 to 11+2 or 8+3+2 for technical training. The training of skilled workers, technicians and academicians have been focussed and planed through reforming the curricula and introducing unified management to more closely link each sector to meet the needs of new labour markets. A National Committee for Improving Vocational and Technical Curriculum was established in 1998. This Committee provides national leadership in curriculum development and national standards. The Center for Vocational Education Development, established at the same year, develops and decides curriculum for vocational schools. During five years the number of students in university and higher education colleges of both public and private sectors have increased from 6,000 to 12,300. Enrollments have grown by 215%, increasing to 4,300 students. In 2000, the number of graduates consisted of 2,160. Over five years, the country has prepared about 9,700 specialists with Bachelor degree and higher education equivalency; 15,500 technicians, and 5,800 skilled workers. In addition 1,321 graduates finished higher education study abroad. At the present, more than 1,400 Lao citizens are studying at higher education institutions in 25 countries. 5) Educational Administration and Management Recently, the government has adopted administration reform aimed at transforming the province as strategic unit, district as planning and budgeting unit, village as basic implementation unit. All socio-economic sectors are undergoing this process, which should lead to decentralization. MOE continues reforming organizational structure and mechanism of administration, management, planning and budgeting in conformity with the cited guidelines. At Central Level MOE is responsible for national education system planning, recommending education policy, and supervising education throughout the country. The responsibilities of MOE include: curriculum development, instructional materials production and distribution, preschool and general education, non-formal education, teacher education, vocational-technical and higher education, education finance, and overall personnel management in the system. MOE has authority for establishing grassroots educational organizations, defining the organization and role of provincial education service (PES) and district education bureau (DEB), appointing and discharging education officers at all levels, and issuing various educational decisions, rules, orders, regulations and notices. At Provincial and District Levels PES is mainly responsible for supervision of all operation of secondary schools, while DEB has responsibility for implementing primary education. In some cases, responsibilities may be shared, such as school building initiatives, and vocational and technical education. DEB is the lowest branch of the national educational administration. It assists schools and communities in their planning of primary, preschool education and prepares a district plan for each academic year and each school term. At School and Village Level Schools link close ties with administrative organizations of village through Association of Student's Parents (ASP). The key roles of ASP are to mobilize and stimulate the villagers to participate in the school support in line with the policy for "education is the common cause of all people", namely: contributing money, materials and labour forces to school construction, repair and maintenance; providing school equipment (tables, chairs, benches, blackboard, and low-cost teaching aids made of local found materials); taking care for living conditions of teachers, sending school-age children to school; monitoring of learning progression, socio-emotional behaviours and activities of school children. According to MOE decree, schools carry
out seven main tasks: Over the period of reform, the organizational mechanisms of education from central to grassroot levels have been entirely renovated in response to decentralization requirements. Especially, highlights were directed to determination of rights and responsibilities of each organizational unit and appointment of personnel to assigned works. The education law was adopted and promulgated by the national assembly last April. The Government issued several decrees aimed at strengthening education system; improving the work conditions, material and spiritual wellbeing of teachers; implementation of five-year compulsory education, and so on. Nowadays, there are more than 53,500 educational personnel, including 39,000 teaching staff. The students-teacher ratio has been gradually balanced. Most of educational and school administrators have been trained on educational leadership, personnel, organization and project management. As a result, their personality qualities and qualifications were improved. The system of collecting and analyzing statistics and data was strengthened. The supervisory and control bodies were set up and operated according to prescribed rights and responsibilities at each educational administration level. Particularly, the movement of education administrators visiting the grassroots to stimulate and mobilize community members, social organizations, as well as teachers and other educational stakeholders to support and participate in educational cause, has brought the successes to education in quantitative and qualitative dimension. Concerning educational finance, the high percentage of education funds consisted of the loans from the World Bank and ADB, and international grants. The allocation from the national budget and gross domestic product into education has increased to 7.3% and 1.4% respectively. In order to fulfill the education vision 2020, MOE adopted the strategic plan for educational development from the present to year 2020. It was divided into four five-year plans. The current five-year plan (2001-05) is organized into four major programs: equitable access; quality improvement; improved relevance, and, strengthening planning and management. 3. Problems and Issues 1) Preschool and general education The majority of children are missing the opportunity to access to kindergarten. Therefore, they lack the readiness while studying in primary schools. In this context, many grade 1 pupils were not able to properly acquire communicative skills, especially, children from other linguistic backgrounds are facing the problems of listening and speaking language of instruction. Such situation led to lower learning outcomes, which are one of main causes of repetition and dropout. The expansion of education in remote, mountainous and isolated areas was still slowly. It is noticed the disparity between provinces and districts in providing access, from preschool up to upper secondary school. The girls and children of ethnic minority groups remained disadvantaged. School internal efficiency was still at lower level. In primary education the repetition rate comprised 21%, the dropout rate was 12%. The student learning outcomes in Lao and mathematics were in medium and weak scale. Some schools could not organize teaching and learning of arts, technology and foreign languages prescribed in curriculum, owing to lack of teachers of the cited subjects. Unqualified and under-qualified teachers were not able to effectively deliver the lessons to fulfill educational objectives. Many teachers were reluctant to change teaching behaviours. The student-centered strategies recommended in the new curriculum were not properly used in classrooms. There was a shortage of instructional
materials, school facilities, equipment and library. At primary
level, there was high percentage of temporary school buildings (58%),
school in bad conditions (45%), incomplete schools that limit the
access (40% with 1-2 grades, 35% with 3 grades, 25% only are complete
schools). Some private schools are obliged to shut down due to financial
constraints. The teacher training did not pay the sufficient attention to upgrading of subject academic knowledge in terms of new concepts and methodologies. The teacher trainees profiles have not been directed to new trends of instruction such multi-discipline and inter-discipline teaching. Beside that the teacher trainees were not sufficiently inculcated in new teaching culture, professional consciousness, moral and political ideology to be the change agents for development and to play a key role in human resource development of the nation. It is observed the low motivation for teachers and high percentage of graduated students who did not join the teaching profession or go to teach in assigned remote rural areas. There was a lack of correlation between curricula of teacher education and general education. Teacher trainees could not make them-selves acquainted in advance with instructional materials, which they have to use in school. The number of ethnic minority teachers was not yet reflected the high priority of the government policy on the expansion of education in ethnic and mountainous areas, prescribed in the Constitution of Lao PDR. 3) Non-Formal Education The process for eradication of illiteracy lacked dynamism. Both side teachers and learners have not sufficient enthusiasm. Most of teachers of NFE are volunteers who have limited academic knowledge and methods of adult learning. They have not been trained in specific field in using literacy materials. Every volunteer teacher presented lessons at his/her own discretion, denying pursuing curriculum guidelines. Moreover, the economic constraints obliged them to take other income-generation jobs for their family survives. It lets little time for preparing the lesson plans or teaching aids. Those who received the certificate of literacy graduate were missing the opportunity to proceed the course for upgrading to primary education equivalency, and relapsed into neo-illiterates. In consequence, the school dropout and neo-illiterates have simultaneously added the list of nation-wide illiterates. The curriculum, literacy materials remained irrelevant, neglecting the needs of learners, target groups, specific features of local dialects and ethno-linguistic background, and real socio-economic context. There are no community learning centers in many villages. Existing CLC did not properly operate and fulfill the roles and functions as prescribed in the MOE decree. In particular, organization of teaching and learning linked with the vocational training was facing some constraints related to lack of skilled trainers, scarcity of productive tools and materials. The awareness campaigns have not been
organized in-depth and in large scale to convince the community
members to recognize the role of education as key factor for improving
the quality of life. NFE, particularly, the process of eradication
of illiteracy has not closely linked with the integrated rural development
program as top priority of the government policy on alleviation
of poverty. 4) Vocational-Technical and Higher Education The number of students of vocational and technical schools was insignificant in comparison to those of higher education institutions. In this case, the preparation of manpower was not in compliance with the tendency of pyramidal shape educational development. There was marked the imbalance of theoretical learning and practical training. Instead of practice in factories or enterprises, in many cases, the instructors were obliged to use demonstration how to manage and manipulate the instruments owing to lack of cooperation between training and work places, shortage of modern equipment and a sufficient budget for the materials and supplies needed for student work. Due to lack of the labour market need assessment, the training course did not entirely respond to the job profiles widely practiced in companies, enterprises and work places. Consequently, the young graduates are very hard to seek employment. Over five years of existence and functioning, the national university was obliged to make its efforts to solve the problems related to organization, administration and management. The new curricula of various faculties were recently revised or built. The articulation of secondary and post-secondary curricula is still weak. While the new student entering the course of foundation studies program, they lack the knowledge and skills prescribed in the NUOL requirements. Many professor staff graduated higher and post-university education need refresher training to effectively work with students in the fields of teaching and research. The training of high-qualified specialists
is based on the subjective desires of individual students or on
quota, distributed to each province and governmental unit rather
than on the research findings on the needs of socio-economic sectors.
As a result, in recent years the number of students in the faculty
of education, which prepares future teachers of upper secondary
school, has sharply decreased. The implementation of decentralization in education system in terms of the division of power between central and local bodies is still facing some complications. On one hand, MOE set up its educational bodies: PES in provinces and DEB in districts, determines policy, realizes development plans, conducts supervision and control of the process of fulfillment educational goals, and has the responsibility for overall personnel management in the system nation-wide. On other hand, in practice, at local level the governors have maintained considerable power over some activities, for example, senior personnel appointments, and to some extent planning and finance. At local levels it was revealed limited planning capabilities, difficulties in prioritizing projects and programs; non-availability of adequate training for staff; poor monitoring and evaluation of actions. The mechanism of collecting the statistic data did not work precisely, and this led to inadequate planning. Beside that planning and administration of projects was always striven to donor-driven initiatives and resources, due to insufficient domestic funds. At the same time, there is almost lack of recurrent expenditure funds. Lack of sufficient technical skills, inadequate information, poor coordination and communication, and absence of decisive leadership at departmental level was conducive to malfunction and lower quality of works. Economic downturn, financial shortfall and low salary of teachers are discouraging the mobilization of physical and intellectual potentials for improvement of the quality of education. 4. Lessons Learned To ensure the social equity it must continue expanding education to remote, isolated and mountainous areas by building appropriate schools based on statistics of school-age population, organizing multigrade teaching, using specific techniques to teach Lao as second language on the basis of research findings, training of ethnic minority and female teachers, supplying sufficient learning materials and providing minimum school facilities for these areas. To link education closely with the integrated rural development program. Through the process of improving the living conditions of multiethnic people to conduct awareness campaign among community members to regard education as cornerstone for further alleviation of poverty, mobilize them to actively participate in the movement for eradication of illiteracy and further life-long learning. To ensure education for all-round development of personality of individuals it must emphasize on moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and work-related educational dimensions, including international accepted four learning pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together. Teachers are key agents for determining the quality of education along with availability of relevant competency-based curricula for whole educational system. Therefore, great endeavour should be made to ensure the effective pre-service, in-service training to upgrade the political and moral ideology, academic knowledge, and professional competencies of teachers along with recognizing their social role and improving their work and living conditions. Special attention should be paid to raise incentives of teachers working in disadvantaged areas. The training of skilled workers, technicians and high-qualified specialists should be based on labour market need assessment in order to ensure optimal program building and full response to the socio-economic development requirements. The merit-based criteria should be considered and adopted for future entry into university and vocational-technical colleges. Along with deployment of national academic experts, invitation of international professors to deliver lectures at NUOL should also be envisioned and accepted. To further strengthen the management mechanisms through training of key educational officials to enhance their management capabilities, consolidating the sense of responsibility, moral and physical stimulation of educational personnel, participation of all educational stakeholders at all levels, supporting the development of decentralization of administration and management, improving coordination and cooperation between educational units and donors agencies, and, increasing the allocation of considerable funds (minimum 15%) from the national budget into education, especially, the recurrent funds should be sufficiently provided. II. SCHOOL CURRICULUM REFORM 1. Philosophy of the National Curriculum The current school curriculum was revised in the light of the strategy of education for the period of 1987-2000. It has been implemented nationwide since 1994-95 school year. Its objectives focused on training and preparation of the future citizens to meet socio-economic development requirements in the period of realization of new economic mechanism to fulfill the holistic renovation of the country in the threshold of the XI century. By implementing the Government's policy, Ministry of Education determined the educational objectives of the training of young people by the end of eleven-year general education: " To become good citizens who are patriots; have a sense of solidarity with all Lao multi-ethnic people and with the people of other countries. They recognize their own rights, interests and duties prescribed in the laws; are able to develop the national culture and aware of discipline and respect in public regulations. They should be all-round developed, acquire the general knowledge and basic job skills, and be ready to take active part in the development of the country ". Concerning curriculum content, highlight was given to the balanced education which inculcates in pupils the spirit of patriotism along with internationalism, combines theoretical study with practical activities, integrates political consciousness and juridical awareness, and infuses the modern world education with the best national traditional culture. In this connection, special concentration is directed to such subject concepts as electricity, electronic technology, mechanics, application mathematics, technical drawing, chemistry, modern biology, Lao history, moral, political and civic education, geography, Lao language and foreign languages. At the same time, it is necessary to prepare all facilities to try out the teaching of basic computer applications in upper secondary schools. The training on vocational and technical skills, occupational orientation, management of micro-business, basic concepts of laws and regulations; health education, martial arts are considered to be introduced in curriculum. The training of basic job skills as well as scientific process skills, team work spirit and other experimental practical activities are prescribed to cover 30% of whole allotted study course time. The local based curriculum embracing the knowledge and life skills for agriculture, livestock, planting, forestry, handicraft, appropriate technology, services and so on should be 20% of whole courses. Meanwhile, as far as the curriculum is designed, revised and adopted as the official document for schools, some concept modifications have been made. In particular, the concept of integration was adopted in order to overcome the problems related to curriculum overload. New curriculum, textbooks, teacher guides and other corresponding instructional materials will be centered around limited number of integrated basic subjects, emphasizing problem-solving, learning to learn and creative thinking skills, as well as the role of schools in society and the preservation of the environment. Towards the end of the upper secondary cycle, options for advanced studies in the basic disciplines will be created. The grade to grade promotion examinations will be replaced by school based assessment aimed at continuously identifying the adjustments required to improve student mastery of knowledge and skills designed by the new curriculum. National examinations, while serving mainly as selection mechanism between cycles, will also be designed to provide schools with systematic feedback on teaching effectiveness and student performance. 2. Curriculum Development In order to provide basic data for effective implementation of educational reform program and to give the realistic, national, scientific and modern characteristics of drawing up strategy of education, the Ministry of Education set up the National Research Institute for Educational Sciences (NRIES) which assumes responsibility for development of curriculum, compiling textbooks and teacher's guides, designing prototype of teaching and learning materials for school of general education, providing teacher training to introduce the new curriculum and instructional materials as well as evaluation of student learning outcomes, and ensuring the curriculum update. In Laos, the curriculum is designed with a combination of content and competency based approach. Educational objectives in the curriculum were set up in terms of cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains covered five educational pillars: moral, intellectual, labour, physical and aesthetic. According to learning objectives the corresponding topics were determined. In order to maintain democratization and humanization of education, school curriculum designed by NRIES is subject to discussion, review and revision by a National Curriculum Advisory Committee chaired by Vice-Minister of Education and consisted of representatives of MOE technical departments: Department of General Education (DGE), Department of Teacher Training (DTT), the National University of Laos (NUOL), officials from Ministry of Information and Culture, Ministry of Public Health, Sciences and Technology Organization as well as representatives of mass organizations: Lao youth Union, Federation of Lao Women, and Trade Union, Propaganda and Education Department of Central Party Committee , and school teachers. Curriculum is centralized and regarded
as juridical document for all schools both public and private. However,
the flexibility is acceptable, and the local educational authorities
are allowed to amend or to add the relevant messages 20% of the
total volume of contents prescribed by MOE. However, in practice
no schools are able to develop the school-based curriculum. 3. Curriculum Structure There are seven subjects taught at primary education level. Three main subjects: Lao, mathematics and the world around us were compiled in form of textbooks and distributed each per student, and accompanied by teacher's guides. Other four subjects: performing art, drawing, handicraft, and physical education, included in teacher's guides. At secondary education level, along with the main instrumental subjects emphasis was placed on political, moral and social studies, natural sciences, technology and foreign languages. At upper secondary level, there are 12 separate subjects being compulsory to learn, and no optional subjects were elaborated. Time allotted to one school year is 33 weeks with 5 supplemental weeks designated for preparation of examinations and control works. School week lasts 5 days, which covers 28 -38 periods of 50 minutes per period. Extra-curricular activities were introduced for field study visits, excursions, sport contests, artistic performance, student camping, meeting for awareness campaigns of HIV/AIDS/STD, drug prevention, road safety, environmental studies, pioneer and youth activities, women seminars etc. In order to overcome the problems related to curriculum overload the integration of subjects and new concepts was considered and adopted. Subject matters in primary education are highly integrated into the world around us comprised the knowledge of moral, civics, history, geography, biology, physics, health education, environmental study, population education, HIV/AIDS /STD and drug preventive education. At the lower secondary education level, knowledge of biology, physics, chemistry, astrology, geology and environmental study were combined in natural sciences. Meanwhile, the international education messages such as education for peace and international understanding were infused and spread across various subjects. By taking into consideration the increasing rate of drug abuses, spreading of HIV/AIDS/STD infection, road incidents and other dangerous cases caused by natural disasters and the last thirty-year long war in Laos land, the supplemental learning materials on practicing life skills for prevention of risk behaviours of school teenage were developed, tested and distributed to some provinces where such high risk already alerted. The computer literacy, mentioned in the education strategy more than one decade ago, has not been introduced in the current curriculum, owing to the scarcity of human, material and financial resources. 4. The Adoption of the National Curriculum In order to effectively manage and implement the curriculum, the national workshops on school management and administration were held for local educational administrators from school to provincial levels. The main courses were concentrated on the educational policies of the government, the principle of management, planning and evaluation and the procedures if the curriculum implementation. According to MOE regulations, school administrators should carry out seven functions. Among them the organization of the curriculum implementation is the most important duty included in the academic function. School principals in both public and private schools should direct the organization of teaching and learning process in accordance with national curriculum. Approved by Minister of Education, the curriculum enters in effect. Every school ought to abide by and implement nation-wide. All the textbooks for school are elaborated according to the statements prescribed in the curriculum. Teachers are key implementers of curriculum. Meanwhile, they have the right to readjust at their discretion. Curriculum should be implemented in a creative and flexible way. NRIES elaborated teachers' guides along with student textbooks. Teachers in collaboration with the pedagogical advisers work up the annual, semester and weekly teaching plan. Many private schools have developed their own curriculum. However, the core curriculum should follow the national one. In this connection NRIES recommendations remained significant for adoption. 5. Existing Infrastructure Support for the National Curriculum According to the Principles of the Management of General Education School issued by MOE, each school should provide buildings, classrooms, equipment, teaching aids, and other school facilities responded to the standards in order to adequately implement the curriculum and conduct the social activities in line with educational regulations, and effectively organize teaching and learning. In principle, it is prescribed that each school building should be constructed according to the prototypes approved by MOE. Each school should have at least the office for the directorate and teachers, classrooms, library or book corner, information board, site for sportive and physical education activities, rest rooms and water supply. In addition, secondary school should have the room for conducting various learning and developmental activities, scientific laboratory. Each classroom should have a capacity to contain 30-40 persons depending on a number of pupils, i.e., an average 1.2 sq.m per person. However, in reality these standards were significantly deviated due to the social, economic and cultural disparities existed in the different parts of the country. Nevertheless, MOE continue to renovate the school buildings, strengthen the mechanism of textbook and other instructional materials distribution to schools, construct the resource centers for school clusters in such a way as the satellite schools could use in sharing the materials as well as the teaching and learning experiences. At the same time, NRIES also makes efforts to design the prototypes of low-cost teaching aids and organizes the workshops for teachers to produce and utilize in teaching process to help students in long-term memorization. The laboratories are available in the secondary schools of the big cities only. 6. The State of Textbooks and Instructional Materials As soon as the curriculum was approved and published, the textbooks of every subject for all grades of general education were also compiled, revised, adopted, printed and disseminated nation-wide. In distinction from other countries, the curriculum developers write and produce learning materials. Meanwhile, in order to provide the relevant contents and suitable teaching and learning methods, the school teachers and university professors and other professionals at central and local levels were invited to write textbooks and teacher's guides. No private companies were authorized to write textbooks. All learning materials for schools should be approved by Ministry of Education through NRIES as its competent agency. In common principle, the textbook contents reflect the national policy and culture, modern information, scientific concepts and the promotion of peace, international understanding, co-operation and development. Along with the main knowledge the questions, vocabulary explanation, commentaries of the new concepts, exercises with various learning activities were presented. Textbook management includes in the function of the MOE Department of General Education, which issues regulations on the use, and maintenance of textbooks. According to MOE policy, the learning materials were distributed to primary school pupils in a free of charge basis, one set each. However, the students of secondary school have to rent the textbooks by paying a tiny amount of money as guarantee. All textbooks and others learning materials should be returned to the school library by the end of school year. 7. Training of Teachers for Implementing the New Curriculum Before the curriculum enters into force the ten-day orientation workshops were organized for trainers of teachers in three mains geographic areas of Laos. Afterwards, these trainers organized another ten-day workshops for pedagogical advisors and teachers of their own provinces. The objectives of the workshops are to familiarize teachers with the educational objectives of the new curriculum, its structure, the organization of implementation, new methods of teaching and learning; to introduce them to the new contents of textbooks and teacher's guides. During teacher orientation workshops the participants prepared the lesson plans, conducted microteaching, peer teaching and demonstration teaching. They visited the schools to observe the teaching and learning process, and afterwards, discussed and made the comments in order to improve the teaching skills. Besides, the teachers were recommended to use new methods of assessment and evaluation. They have also practiced to produce and use the low-cost teaching aids produced by utilizing the local-found materials. NRIES work closely with Teacher Development Center on articulation of curriculum for teacher education and general education for enhancing effectiveness in school curriculum implementation. 8. Monitoring and Stimulating the Implementation of the National Curriculum 1) At school level There is an academic team, which directs
the overall academic works of school as follows: At the same time, the school principal also carries out it-self the prescribed duties. He/she monitors and supervises the implementation of curriculum in school and offers the necessary pedagogical guidance to teachers in the interval period when the district pedagogical advisers are absent. 2) At district level The primary education pedagogical advisers make regular visits to schools for monitoring and giving recommendations to school principals and teachers in organization of the curriculum implementation. According to the MOE regulation, the duties of PA include: helping teachers and school in improvement of teaching, in particular, to solve the academic problems such as setting the learning objectives and preparing teaching plans, implementing new teaching and learning strategies, designing, producing and using the appropriate teaching aids, and controlling the student learning outcomes. The district pedagogical advisers should submit the academic reports to the top instance at the provincial level and to the Department of General Education at the MOE level. 3) At provincial level The secondary pedagogical advisers offer the guidance to the teachers of lower secondary schools in their province. Beside that two or three inspectors in the province assume the responsibility for controlling school operations in conformity with MOE regulations. Both SPA and inspectors try to visit all schools, supervise the administrative and academic operations, particularly the curriculum implementation in every district, and give useful recommendations for further improvement of the quality of instruction at the secondary level. 4) At national level Within the Department of General Education there are some staff who are responsible for the supervisory and school guidance system. They direct the nation-wide school supervision, monitor the academic operations and provide service in material supply; conduct a study and analysis of the teaching and learning situation; develop the supervisory mechanism and procedures. All proposals, comments and recommendations regarding the curriculum, education content and teaching-learning methods are sent to NRIES for further consideration and put into revision and correction appropriately in order to ensure the relevance of the curriculum. 9. Strengths and Weaknesses of the National Curriculum and its Implementation 1) Strengths According to the results of the educational evaluation and the assessment of student learning outcomes led by various MOE technical departments and NRIES, some achievements of curriculum reform have been noticed: The current curriculum was developed
according to the government policy on human resource development
and strategy of education for last decade. It reflected the national
identity, cultural diversity, modernity and international education
tendency. The curriculum was implemented nation-wide. The textbooks, teacher guides and other instructional materials developed in conformity with the new curriculum were distributed to all schools. Teaching and learning process was organized in pursuing curriculum guidelines. The implementation of new curriculum enabled teachers and learners of the late decade of twentieth century to accept new ways of thinking and learning for exploring the knowledge, acquiring skills in reasoning, problem solving, decision making; to be adapted to permanently changing environment in order to live better life. The curriculum was periodically evaluated to ensure its relevance by monitoring the organization of teaching-learning process and assessing student learning outcomes. By developing the new curriculum, it made an important contribution to the common cause of educating, training and preparing good citizens who assume responsibility for construction and development of the country. 2) Weaknesses 1) Design There is a lack of experiences of designing and developing curriculum in terms of its new structure, concepts and methodology. The curriculum has been adapted and adopted without tryout and a deep study of the priority of the national policy on socio-economic development, specific needs of students from various ethnic, linguistic and cultural background, the readiness of the teachers, school facility, as well as the real situation in the classroom in terms of the availability of the teaching aids and other instructional materials. Consequently, it is revealed overlapped concepts spread over various subjects, inadequacy of contents, illogical continuum of curriculum structure and unrealistic methodology. The national curriculum is prescribed for compulsory implementation in all schools. At the same time, 20% of allotted academic time are reserved for local study. However, neither schools nor local educational agencies develop their own relevant curriculum. The integration of multidisciplinary concepts was organized for some limited subjects. In practice, for social sciences and language the integration did not happen as defined by its nature. Separate subjects such as civic education, history, geography, Lao language and literature are still existing in lower secondary school programs. Concerning the natural sciences, a kind of combination of separated physics, chemistry and biology was established. Consequently, combination of subjects has provoked complication for organizing teaching and learning. This is owing to the lack of cohesion between curricula of secondary education and teacher education. 2) Implementation During educational reform new knowledge structure has been introduced along with new teaching-learning strategies, in contrast, teachers continue to teach out-of-date conceptual structure by using traditional methods. On other hand, there is a lack of adequate school physical facilities: laboratories, libraries, teaching learning materials, active learning approaches promoting critical and creative thinking did not operate as desired. With introduction of " Technology " subject in secondary education programme, which aimed to develop life skills of students for improving their daily living standards, it is revealed some inadequate continuity between topics from unit to unit, from grade to grade. Moreover, owing to shortage of production tools, laboratory equipment's and teaching aids as well as insufficient educational background of teachers who do not possess knowledge of new introduced subject, teaching of technology was running at the theoretical academic aspect only, neglecting practical application and activities. Incorporation of new international education, population education, HIV/AIDS, STD, drug, risk behavior prevention in selected school subjects has led to more overload due to limited time devoted to main subjects. As new unknown concepts introduced, many teachers are encountering difficulty in transferring and processing knowledge and information. Two foreign languages are taught in secondary school: French and English spending three hours per week. In recent years, the interest of students towards French has fallen sharply because most jobs proposed by labour market require English language and computer skills. Demands of possessing English language are so high that Ministry of Education could not provide sufficient textbooks and teachers of English. There is shortfall of teachers of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Due to low salary paid to teachers, most of teaching graduates did not join the teaching professions. On the other hand, some skilled and experienced teachers were attracted either to other public sectors by promotion to higher state official position, or to private companies or enterprises which ensured higher salary status. Owing to geographically inaccessible
location of schools in remote mountainous rural areas, poor communication
facilities and some technique-administrative deficiency, the distribution
of instructional materials has been delayed. Not all students have
textbooks. Teaching aids, laboratory and, library facilities, and
the other materials are not available in many schools in both urban
and rural areas. Pedagogical advisers who should assist teachers in solving academic problems related to curriculum implementation could not operate according to timetable of school/classroom visits due to financial constraints, lack of incentives, and in some cases, low level of professional competencies and qualifications. There is a weak linkage between schools, student parents and local administrative authorities in helping schools to provide a minimum condition for improvement of teaching and learning in rural areas. The school wasted academic time owing to the agricultural work during harvest season and some pediatric diseases. But, the teachers do not monitor and keep record over his/her own students. Finally, this led to long-lasting absenteeism and school dropout. New evaluation and assessment have not yet operated appropriately. Teachers continue to use traditional control of the knowledge emphasizing exclusively on memorization. 10. Summary of Major Recommendations for Improving the National Curriculum In order to improve the quality of education, to update and make curriculum relevant to the socio-economic development requirements, it is recommended: To upgrade the academic capacity of the curriculum developers, textbook writers, and designers of other instructional materials as printed and non-printed. To conduct research-based studies on the impacts of current curriculum, its content and new teaching and learning strategies on the quality of education to find out its strengths, problems/issues lesson learned and recommendations based on scientific justification for improving the new curriculum. To follow the successive stages of the curriculum development through the tryout, collecting and analyzing feedback, revising and printing for implementation nation-wide. To organize pre-service and in-service teacher training in a way that they are deeply informed about the goals and objectives of education, the content of new materials and the new strategies of teaching and learning, as well as the development of evaluation tools, the procedures of measurement and assessment as well as the production and utilization of teaching aids. To organize special workshops on development of local or school based curriculum for pedagogical advisers and trainers of teachers in such a way they could take the new task for design 20% of curriculum reserved for this purpose. To reconsider the development of the world around us textbooks for grade 1, 2 and 3, omitted last five school years; to write more supplementary books which the pupils can get extended information for discovery learning; continue to conduct the study on teaching Lao to the children of ethnic minority linguistic and cultural background; to integrate the new international education concepts such education for peace, life skills for drug, HIV/AIDS and other risky behaviour prevention, nutrition, population education, reproductive health, sexual education, and environmental studies and so on into existing subjects; to add the moral education along with citizenship into future curriculum as independent subject focusing on the various attractive activities; and organize teaching and learning of foreign language since grade 3 of primary education. To issue the new regulation on the procedures of assessment and evaluation by placing emphasis on the objective based and competency based of student learning outcomes in such a way the evaluation tools encompassing three domains of objectives: cognitive, psycho-motor and affective, and covering the process skills, problem solving, critical and creative thinking. To strengthen the mechanism of the curriculum management relying on the decentralization through the training of schools administrators, PA, trainers of teachers on skills in curriculum implementation and supervision. To provide the necessary school facilities, material supply, textbooks and other instructional materials enable teachers to fully and effectively use the new methods of active learning and student centered strategies. Conclusions Over last ten years of educational reform, the great efforts have been made on expansion of access to education, especially, for remote rural areas: improvement of the quality through curriculum renewal for all educational sub-sectors and upgrading of teacher' s qualifications, internal and external efficiency of the system, eradication of illiteracy and upgrading of educational equivalency for adults; restructuring higher education by establishment of the national university; training of skilled manpower for all socio-economic sectors to prepare human resource with high qualities for meeting the third millennium. To ensure the smooth process of reform, the mechanisms of educational administration and management have also significant restructured in accordance with the centralization development. Concerning the curricular reform for general education highlights were directed to re-determining the goals of training good citizens for development of the country; selecting the most relevant knowledge and main concepts that will serve a basis for learners use in further acquiring new knowledge and competencies at higher level and for improvement of their quality of life; using integration approach to encompass the broad new content and reduce the curriculum overload; putting into practice the learner-centered teaching and learning strategies and promoting the active learning; designing and producing low-cost teaching aids by using local founded materials; promoting the new mechanism of assessment and evaluation; providing basic textbook and other instructional materials to schools nation-wide; conducting teacher orientation and training workshops to make teachers and school principals to be informed and aware of the objectives, content and strategies of new curriculum; and establishing the pedagogical support to effectively implement new curriculum. The implementation of curricular reform has made a substantial contribution to the improvement of the quality of education, and to the process of gradually meeting international standards. CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Dr. Khamphay Sisavanh Present Position: Director National Research Institute for Education Sciences (NRIES) Education Background: Ph. D. in Philosophy Institute for Oriental Studies Academy of Sciences, USSR. Moscow, 1983-1987 Work Experience: 1996-2001 Member of the Lao National 1992-2001 Governing Board Member
of 1982-2001 Scientific Secretary 1980-1983 Researcher at the Committee
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