The only country that can be reached easily from Laos, a country of 6 million inhabitants, is Thailand. Between Laos and Vietnam lies the Annamite Cordillera mountain range, crossable at only six passes. High mountains equally hinder travel to Burma and China.

 

It has been less than 10 years since Laos opened its doors to full-fledged tourism. Long a political pawn in French Indochina, Laos was slowly and secretly dragged into “The American War” during the 1960’s and 1970’s. While China has traded in Laos for centuries, French occupiers made little effort to develop their “forgotten colony”. No railroads exist in landlocked Laos, unlike Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. During sixty years of French rule in Laos, not one new high school was built. In 1940, only seven thousand Laotian youth were attending primary school. After six decades of French reign, a “secret war” led by the USA, and a conflict that pitted Lao Prathet communists against remaining Lao resistors left behind by the American government, the education system has been left in tatters.

 

Laos Today

 

During the second war in Indochina, Laos had the disastrous distinction of becoming the most bombed country in the 4.5 billion year history of our planet. After turning bomb craters into fishponds, resourceful Laotians have turned their attention towards the encroaching outside world while striving to retain their unique culture. In northeastern Laos, the new Huay Xai to Luang Namtha highway financed by China serves as an important corridor for Chinese exports bound for Thailand, and a newly renovated airport now plays host to international arrivals near Luang Namtha.

Along the Mekong River, which runs the length of the country, six large foreign financed hydroelectric dam projects are on the drawing board. Laos has 60,400 cubic meters of renewable water resources per capita, more than any other country in Asia. In central Laos, “The Jewel of the Mekong”, Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage city, welcomes over 100,000 visitors annually.  As the rest of the world slowly awakens to the charm of the Lao people and the country’s physical beauty the need to provide a better education for the next generation of Laotians has become more critical.

An Archetypal School

Situated far from the well-beaten Luang Prabang tourist circuit, smoky air wafts over the village of Ban Buamlao. Inhabited by ethnic Hmong and Kamu slash and burn subsistence farmers, it’s home to a lone school, the Ban Buamlao primary school. When compared to millions of other Southeast Asian school aged children who don’t attend classes, the students at Ban Buamlao are fortunate. Nevertheless, their educational endeavors present daily challenges and the road to higher learning is rocky.

 

Typifying rural education in Laos, four teachers, who each earn $20 USD per month, try to educate a student body of one-hundred-twenty. The youngest children learn their lessons in a detached dirt floored bamboo bungalow as the hot afternoon sun leaks through slits of the rickety hut. Some first and second graders fidget while sitting on thin wooden benches whereas others wearily rest heads in hands, as textbooks that would offer diversion are unaffordable. Luang Prabang’s Ms. Dalavone Khamsavanh, now a university Lao language major, remembers those years well. “The first two or three years of my schooling were very difficult for me and I had a hard time understanding things,” she remembers. “As time passed things got easier, but I will never forget those early days.” added Ms. Khamsavanh, who is going to be a teacher.

 

The Rocky Road

One of the major obstacles to obtaining an adequate education in rural Laos is the price of basic learning materials. Since few children can afford even one textbook, the books they collectively own are an important commodity. Their parents, slash and burn subsistence farmers who spend their days cutting and burning the forest to prepare the soil for planting, earn only $15 USD to $30 USD per month hence, buying adequate materials for their children is out of the question. To overcome this problem, students transcribe textbook information into their workbooks, meaning the children devote an inordinate amount of time each day to the transliteration of information. Once these “textbooks” have come to life, the students are ready for their lessons. Pupils without workbooks sit and listen to their teachers without text reference, or they look over a classmate’s shoulder.

 

 

Moving On

Mai, a 13-year-old 6th grader, is a good student. When a teacher jokingly asks her, “Do you like whisky?” she laughs and replies, “No!” She wants to learn English and continue through grade 12 before attending college, but that will cost her family about $60 USD per year. If she makes it to a university, tack on four more years at $100 USD per annum.

The paucity of secondary schools in the Lao countryside as well as the sheer distance between primary schools and high schools is problematic. The biggest boulder along the road of scholarship may be a near total lack of a basic infrastructure. Since French colonist’s interest in Laos failed to include strengthening societal fabric, Mai will have to secure room and board at her new school, a three-hour walk away, or her dreams of college will be dashed.

 

Resource Allocation

According to The World Bank, one-half of Laotian citizens are living below the poverty line. Fifty to sixty percent of the populace still lives a subsistence lifestyle, mostly, but not completely, independent from government involvement. In Laos, rice grown by rural farmers in small villages such as Ban Buamlao is divided into thirds, the first third going to the communist government. Instead of being able to sell this rice and keep the profits for themselves, the government procures it and administers the proceeds. Additional thirds go to the village rice collective as well as the growers and their individual families.

Whereas foreign aid has accounted for over 40% of the annual national budget some years, 40% of that amount goes directly to the Lao government payroll. Determining how important the government views funding of education is difficult at best, for Laos ranked 168th in Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) out of 179 countries listed and 161st out of 169 in the 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index

 

 

 

 

 

Ban Buamlao Primary School Low Resolution Slide Show (QT 3.5 MB) or view more images here.