VientianeTimes-Jan 24
Today marks the fifth International Day of Education. In Lao PDR, while the education system has recorded significant progress in the past decades, reaching 98.7 percent of net enrollment in primary schools (2017), some concerning gaps still need to be filled to ensure the quality of education needed by children to reach their full potential. Recent assessments from the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports show that only 1 in 3 children meet literacy standards after Grade 3 and that more than 30 percent of children don’t transition to lower-secondary school. These national numbers hide important disparities between urban and rural areas, with children from rural communities more affected. With increasing economic struggles facing Lao people, lack of infrastructure, and proper transportation to reach secondary schools in remote areas, the deprivation of education has direct consequences for children, especially for girls who face higher risks of early child marriage and pregnancy. Recent research from World Vision shows that cash-based conditional education assistance (CEA) has proven to have a positive impact on children from remote areas to transition from primary to lower-secondary school and complete the compulsory eight years of education (from age 6 to 15) promoted in Laos. Over the past three academic years (2019-2021) World Vision piloted a targeted intervention to improve educational outcomes by providing cash assistance to 220 vulnerable children to start their first year of lower secondary school. The pilot was implemented in Pak Ou district, Luang Prabang province, where secondary-school enrollment rate is one of the lowest in the country. After surveying 254 participants, it has been found that the number of disadvantaged children transitioning to lower secondary school increased with an enrollment rate of 92.7 percent children in the target villages against 68 percent for the whole district (academic year 2020-21). Furthermore, CEA intervention directly reduces the likelihood of early marriage, with 94 percent of caregivers of children who received support now considering that secondary education is more important than getting married. Read more at: https://www.vientianetimes.org.la/freeContent/FreeConten16_International_y23.php
