Project News

2012-12-05

Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) in the third year was conducted on 5th of December. The objectives of JCC were to understand the progress of ITSME project in this year and to discuss the future plan after finishing JICA assistance. The number of Lao Participants was 25. They were from counterpart departments such as DTE (Department of Teacher Education), DPPE (Department of Primary and Pre-school Education), PES (Provincial Education Service), DEB (District Education Bureau), and TTC (Teacher Training College). Addition to them, the people from RIES (Research Institute for Education Science) and ESQAC (Educational Standards and Quality Assurance Centre) also participated. Japanese Participants were 13 from Embassy of Japan in the Lao PDR, JICA Laos Office and the Project team.

1. Opening

Opening remark was given by Mr. Chandy PHOMMABOUTH, Director General of DTE as a chairman. He appreciated the Project activities in the past three years and indicated problems to be solved by the end of the Project in October 2013. After that a remark was given by Dr. Masato TOGAWA, Chief Representative of JICA Laos Office. He mentioned that the improving the nation's education sector is one of the JICA's prioritised areas. He strongly expected us to continue and expand ITSME activities feeling the sense of ownership as shown literally by the nickname "It's me."

2. Discussions

The following presentations were delivered.

1. ITSME Progress Report
   

   Mr. Simoungkhoun VONGCHAMPA, Chief Coordinator of ITSME, reported the progress of the third year's activities. All activities planned in the four steps such as development, delivery, utilization and improvement have been completed. Trainers improved both their understanding in the contents of the subject and their capacity of making lessons.

2. Introduction of "How ITSME makes Lesson Plans"

   Mr. Phimmasone VORAYOUTH as a representative of ITSME Trainers from Savannakhet TTC introduced "How ITSME makes lesson plans." He emphasized that ITSME team took a lot of time to analyse the contents of the lesson and to study students' previous knowledge before the lesson. ITSME team introduces more suitable activities so that students are able to learn the lesson well.

3. ITSME Future Plan

   Mr. Simoungkhoun VONGCHAMPA introduced the outline of the 4th year activities and the course after JICA assistance is over. He told that ITSME activities will be continued and developed. Especially, IS activities and monitoring are prioritized.

After those presentations, some participants asked for clarifications and gave comments.

- ITSME lesson plans are very good. But after delivered to the schools, it is not certain whether the quality of the lessons in the real class has improved or not. Situation in the schools need to be checked.

- The project was going on only 3 provinces. Expansion to all over the country is desirable.

- It was reported that 99% of target schools implemented IS with ITSME materials. We have to know the problem in the other 1% of schools.

- I want to know the concrete plan how to establish an appropriate system to maintain the existing ITSME mechanism.

- The meeting like this JCC should be held frequently, so that we can discuss more to solve various problems.

- It is good point that ITSME improves the way of instructions without changing the contents of the textbook.

Because of a lack of time, answers for the questions and comments will be organized into a summary paper later.

The meeting participated from various sections

The participants of JCC