Lao

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao or Lao PDR) is surrounded by China, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Cambodia in the mainland of Southeast Asia. The country's total population is only 5,497,459 million (July 2000 estimate). It occupies an area of 237,000 square kilometers, roughly the same size of the state of Oregon in the United States. Unlike many areas of Asia, Lao has a low population density of 148 persons per square kilometer. Its neighbor Vietnam has a density of 1,593 persons per square kilometer, while Thailand has a density of 811 persons per square kilometer. Despite its sparse population, Lao PDR has a high population growth rate of 2.86 percent per year. If that rate persists, the population will double to more than 10 million by the year 2025, putting a tremendous pressure on the educational system. An additional pressure on education is that 43 percent of the population is 14 years or younger.

Lao is much less urbanized than many other Asian countries; it has only four major cities that are relatively small. With the relaxation of controls on the movement of people in the early 1990s, there has been considerable migration from rural to urban areas like Vientiane and Savannakhet. The large Lao diaspora resides mainly in the United States, France, Canada, and Australia (Mayouri 1993). These immigrants are mostly former refugees who fled the Communist regime from 1975 to 1985.

Lao has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in Asia, with 47 main ethnic groups and 149 subgroups representing 47.5 percent of the population. These many diverse ethnic peoples are normally classified into the three basic groups of Lao Loum (lowland), Lao Theung (upland), and Lao Sung (upland). A prominent Lao Sung group is the Hmong, who are prominent among the Lao diaspora.

Although the terrain of Lao PDR is covered with rugged mountains, the country is basically agricultural with a high percentage of subsistence farming—87 percent of the harvested area devoted to rice production alone. Roughly 80 percent of the population is employed in agriculture. Lao is ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world as well as in the region. Per capita income in 1999 was US$280. This per capita income level has, however, improved significantly from US$77 in 1966 and US$80 in 1981. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) ranks Lao 136 out of 174 countries, the lowest ranking in Southeast Asia with the exception of Cambodia (number 140). On average Lao children undergo less than three years of schooling, and the quality of that schooling is highly uneven. Life expectancy at birth is only 51.7 years.

The major leitmotif of Lao history is its amazing ability to survive as a distinct political and cultural identity despite being surrounded by powerful neighbors like China, Burma, Vietnam, and Siam. Originally Lao was known as Lan Xang (literally meaning the land of a million elephants). The Lan Xang kingdom flourished from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. At the time of its greatest strength and influence in the seventeenth century, it occupied much of what is now Lao, north and northeast Thailand, and parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. The kingdom was a flourishing center of Buddhism and the arts (literature, dance, drama, and music). From the beginning, Lao had a literate culture with a phonetic alphabet derived and influenced by ancient Indian scripts. Unfortunately, in the early eighteenth century conflicts among royals competing for the throne led to the subdivision of Lao into three smaller kingdoms that later fell under the control of Siam and then to French colonialism.

Traditionally, education in Lao occurred at the village temple and Buddhist monks were the teachers. After Lao became a French colony in 1893, a highly elitist system of French education evolved, which was oriented to the "civilizing mission" of colonial power. Even after Lao gained independence from France in 1949, the French elitist system persisted. During the period dominated by the United States, from 1954-1975, there was considerable expansion of the Lao educational system. High schools, vocational schools, and teacher training institutions were established. School enrollments in 1971-1972 were 17 times higher than in 1946. In December 1975, after years of civil war and the Cold War, the revolution was successful and the Lao People's Democratic Republic was established. The new government carried out many reforms in the educational system to make it serve the broad masses.