Central Government, Education

Laos harness education to reduce poverty

By Alice Kok | 17 November 2008

Laos seeks to raise its world standing by embracing education programmes that reduce local poverty.

View photos

Related Articles

• Filipino education to get ICT boost
• Uganda's education needs internet subsidy

Related Categories

• CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
• EDUCATION

From this Section

• NEWS

Located at a remote hamlet in rural Savannakhet province, central Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR or Laos), not far from the border with Vietnam, is a unique education initiative now connecting Laos and Thailand.

Local government leaders attended an experimental four-day short as part of a larger education programme called the Poverty Reduction and Agricultural Management (Pram). Pram is the region’s first vocational and professional bachelor’s degree programme intended to tackle poverty and is a hybrid of problem-based learning, in-service training and formal academic approaches to learning.

Students passing the experimental four-day in-service training course on knowledge and skills in goat care, diseases and prevention, and animal drugs and usage facilitated by PSU’s Coastal Resources Institute (Corin) immediately earn the equivalent of one credit unit towards a degree in a bachelor’s of science (BSc) programme at partner colleges in Thailand.

Development officials in Laos believe goat production has great potential for smallholder farmers to move out of poverty. Hence its Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is now actively working with partners to train and educate Laotians for real-life applications that are intended to reduce poverty levels by specifically targeting developmental needs of communities.

The ministry’s partners consist of the Bangkok-based non-government organisation known as the Wetlands Alliance Programme (WAP), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and a host of tertiary institutions in the northeast region of Thailand amongst which are Si Sa Ket Agricultural College PSU.

By attempting to fill the gaps in education that exist at the periphery, in far-flung places like Sonnabouly district, Pram strives to equip rural leaders with skills and knowledge they can readily apply in their villages.

Prof Peter Haddawy AIT vice-president for Academic Affairs explains the concept: “Pram operates on the premise that we should listen carefully to what people at the grassroots tell us about their lives, and then develop education platforms that suit their needs and aspirations for true sustainable development.”

According to Douangchith Litdamlong Head of External Cooperation for the Savannakhet Agriculture and Forestry Division, the Lao government is very interested to achieve food security, to assist communities to develop agricultural production for cash, and to alleviate poverty.

“Education is the best way out of poverty, and the best way to achieve true poverty reduction is by tapping into international levels of education to tackle it,” says Douangchith.

Pram students will be required to demonstrate through their work that they are able to use the new knowledge and skills to reduce poverty. Fitness for purpose is a quality assurance measure used by AIT to ensure that this unusual programme achieves its goals.

“It’s not about providing world-class education to district-level officers in Laos. It’s about giving people what they need to make a difference in the lives of desperately poor communities,” says Jonathan Shaw Director of AIT Extension, which is responsible for developing the quality assurance mechanisms for achieving this.

So far, over 3,000 district government officers in seven southern provinces have been identified as candidates for these practical education programmes and the Laos government has since attracted additional sources of funding for Pram totaling US$200,000.