Laos Save the Children International in Laos reaffirms its commitment to support Lao Government to improve teaching and learning in Laos, with a focus on developing GPE partnership compact.
Chaired by Dr Bounpanh Xaymountry, Director General, Department of Planning, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), GPE Partnership Compact Workshop was held in Vientiane on 19th October 2023 with representatives from MoES departments, Australian Embassy and education specialists from Save the Children International in Laos and other development partners joining face to face or online.
The education team from Save the Children International in Laos played a leading role in facilitating the workshop to discuss and identify the persistent barriers and the bottlenecks for achieving the priority reform and developing the GPE partnership compact to enhance school readiness and foundational learning outcomes for all children in Lao PDR.
Dr Bounpanh acknowledged the continuous improvement of the quality ECE and the importance of collaboration in making the difference: “It is our priority to define the meaning of difference and transformation, so then we can have a clear direction to develop partnership compact” He added: “we need fund to support girl education, enhance the fundamental learning which is not only focus on strengthening teacher capacity, but also support learning materials for all subjects and create the friendly and safety environment in school”.
During the section, the status and the process of developing the Partnership Compact for the GPE Grant 2025 and timeline were presented Mr. Somxay Inthasone, Education Technical Expert, SCI.Additionally,1 Key Priority Reform was also introduced by Mr. Sithong Sikhao, Deputy Director-General, Department of Planning, MoES, including rationale of how the priority reform deriving from different studies and analysis including results of JSRM, RTM, and Mid-review 2021-2025. Theory of Change was discussed and reviewed for the main purposed as follows:
1. Increase access to quality ECE to improve school readiness.
2. Improve foundational learning outcome at the primary level for the most disadvantaged children.
3. Strengthened teacher capacity and management for improving learning outcomes.
4. Improve transition to lower secondary and decrease dropouts by addressing gender barriers to education.
Thank to Dr. Bounphanh and all participants for their efforts in making a difference in spurring education system transformation through the theory of change. This shared commitment will bring a great potential to improve the Lao education system.
