Education in Laos

[4] Post-secondary education was not available in Laos, and some students traveled to Hanoi, Danang, and Hué in Vietnam and to Phnom Penh in Cambodia for specialized training; fewer continued with university-level studies in France.

[4] A goal of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) government was to establish a system of universal primary education by 1985.

[5] The decision to establish universal education led the government to focus its efforts on building and staffing schools.

Because of irregular classes, overcrowding, and lack of learning resources, the average student needed 11 to 12 years to complete the 5-year primary course in the 1980s.

Enrollment and school quality are higher in urban areas, where the usefulness of a formal education is more evident than in rural farming communities.

Isolated teachers confronted with primitive rural living and teaching conditions have a difficult time maintaining their own commitment and the interest of their pupils.

The exodus of Laotian elite after 1975 deprived vocational and secondary schools of some of their staff, a situation that was partly offset by students returning from training in socialist countries.

Between 1975 and 1990, the government granted over 14,000 scholarships for study in at least 8 socialist countries: over 7,000 were to the Soviet Union, followed by 2,500 to Vietnam, and 1,800 to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

For most students who do not live in a provincial center, attendance at secondary school requires boarding away from home in makeshift facilities.

This situation further discourages students in rural areas from pursuing further education, with additional differential impacts on girls and minorities.

The ability to implement this program through its scheduled completion in 2000 depended on a budgetary increase to the education sector in addition to receiving foreign aid.