Lao

Preprimary education for children aged three to five is the responsibility of individual parents. Its purpose is to prepare children for primary school. Currently only about eight percent of children in this age group are enrolled in preprimary schools.

With respect to the five years of compulsory primary education, basic infrastructure problems limit primary schools so that only 34.8 percent of them can offer the complete five years. Though this level of education is "compulsory," roughly 25 percent of children are not enrolled. Approximately 30 percent of villages do not have primary schools and, of 1000 students starting primary education, only 20.5 percent survive to grade five without repetition. Including repetition, another 34.7 percent survive to grade five. Overall, in 1996-1997, only 13.9 percent of Lao youth were completing primary education. There are significant disparities across provinces with respect to access to primary education; access is lowest in remote mountainous areas with large populations of ethnic minorities.

The basic curriculum of Lao primary education in grades one through five includes the Lao language, mathematics, social studies, physical education, music, and handicrafts. Of the 23 to 25 hours spent in class, 33 to 50 percent of that time is devoted to language studies. Mathematics instruction increases from three to six hours from grades one through six. Social studies instruction is about two to three hours, and the remaining time is used for physical education, music, and handicrafts.