Laos Country Profile

Laos is a landlocked state with Myanmar and China bordering on the northwest, Vietnam on the east, Cambodia on the south and Thailand on the west. Laos was under the control of Siam (Thailand) from the late 18th century until the late 19th century, when it became part of French Indochina. In 1975, the Communist Pathet Lao took control of the government, ending a six-century-old monarchy. Two ecades later, closer ties to Vietnam and socialization were replaced with a gradual return to private enterprise. This is followed by the liberalization of foreign investment laws and the country’s admission into ASEAN in 1997.

The Lao PDR is the ‘Least Developed Country’ (LDC), and as such is considered by the international community to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Poverty is particularly widespread in rural areas, especially in Northern provinces, and among ethnic groups inhabiting remote areas, the uneducated, and female household members. An estimated 40% (2002 est.) of the ethnically diverse population of approximately 6,217,141 (2002 est.) live below the poverty line. The country also lacks adequate infrastructure. However, there are significant socioeconomic changes now taking place as a result integration of Lao PDR into the Southeast Asian region and the wider global trading system after decades of war and isolation.

In 1986 the government began to reform the education system, with the goals of linking educational development more closely to the socioeconomic situation in each locality, improving science training and emphasis, expanding networks to remote mountainous regions, and recruiting minority teachers. The plan envisioned making education more relevant to daily realities. However, the ability to implement this program through its completion in 2000 is dependent on the available budget for the project, which a huge chunk of it includes foreign aid. Education accounted for only 8 percent of government expenditures in 1988, down from a 10 to 15 percent range during the preceding seven-year period. Cultural expenditures were also excluded from country’s list of priorities.

Challenges in the Laos Educational System:

• Literacy rate: 52.8 percent
• 22 percent of Grade 1 students do not proceed to Grade 2
• Highest drop-out rate: Grade 3
• Percentage of repeating students: 40 percent for the first grade to 14 percent for the fifth grade.
• In the late 1980s, an average student took 11 to 12 years to finish a 5-year primary course because of irregular classes, overcrowding in classrooms, and lack of learning resources
• In 1988, primary school enrollment was estimated at 63 percent of all school-age children. However, the goal of achieving universal primary education was postponed from 1985 to 2000 as a result of the lack of resources