Lao PDR

Allocation: US$7 million

Years: 2020-2021

Grant agent: UNICEF

Key documents:

• Application and program document
• Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 response plan

In Lao, the grant will support the following interventions:

• Provision of hygiene and cleaning kits for schools via the school block grant mechanism. Provision of handwashing facilities, clean water, and promoting hygiene practices in schools
• Developing and disseminating learning materials for ECE and basic education students, including for children with disabilities through various platforms
• Printing and disseminating textbooks and learning materials to students in remote areas
• Providing a TV and satellite receiver and dish set for selected rural schools, including connecting schools to the power grid
• Developing an online & offline teaching and learning platform where education resources and materials are compiled for students, teachers, school principals and pedagogical advisors. Developing training materials for teachers to effectively support remote learning
• Developing a catch-up/remedial program for children lagging behind including for those who could not access online media, radio or TV and children with disabilities
• Providing psychosocial support to students, teachers and education staff in partnership with relevant government bodies and partners

The initiatives above are based on the Ministry of Education COVID-19 response plan.

In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Lao PDR received a GPE grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education. The grant was used to:

• develop an online system to facilitate COVID response monitoring and coordination among partners
• prepare a back-to-school campaign
• develop education content for TV, radio and online platforms.

The government of Lao PDR recognizes education’s importance in achieving national development goals. The country relies heavily on external funding; however, it has shown improvements in recent years. According to government figures, in 2013/14, the education share of the government budget was 15.5%, up from 13.4% in 2009/10.

The country has made significant progress, achieving 98.6% primary net enrollment and a gender parity rate of .99 for primary education. The major challenges that the education system faces are: reducing the high grade 1 dropout rate, enhancing equity, and improving learning outcomes.

The ESDP 2016-2020 has set the following areas of focus:

• Achieve compulsory primary education and expand compulsory education to include lower secondary education
• Eradicate illiteracy, across all ethnic groups, by supporting relevant lifelong learning
• Expand, strengthen, and promote secondary education, technical and vocational education and training, and higher education to respond to future demands of the labor market and improve economic outputs
• Improve the responsiveness of the technical vocational education and training system
• Ensure that graduates have competence to enter the workforce through improving the quality of higher education and technical vocation
• Ensure that technical, professional, and academics have knowledge and are capable of using modern technology and science
• Improve quality and relevance of education to provide youth with the knowledge needed for socio-economic development
• Apply ICT as the tools for improving education administration and management and education quality
• Expand education policy research and evaluation from the central to local level
• Expand physical education and sports from central to local level.