Outline of the Project

Project Name

Supporting Community Initiatives for Primary Education Development in the Southern Provinces

Country

Laos

Date R/D signed

Dec.10,2007

Project Site

Saravane, Sekong, Attapeu Provinces

Term of Cooperation

Dec 21,2007 - Dec 20,2011

Implementing Organization

Ministry of Education

Project Background

Boarder area of Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam is one of the poorest areas with ethnic groups in each country and acknowledged as "CLV Development Triangle". In Lao PDR, southern area is in the Development Triangle.

Government of Japan adopted "Master Plan on Development Triangle" in the prime ministers' conference (Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan) at the occasion of ASEAN Summit in November 2004, and committed the support for the realization of the Master Plan. Based on the several surveys and researches by Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JICA, Government of Japan made strategy to form and support regional development which education sector is one of the key components. This Project was proposed by Government of Lao PDR in this context in 2005 and adopted in 2006.

In Sekong, Attapeu and Saravane Province which Government of Laos proposed for assistance, the education condition is lower than the national average and net enrollment ratio of primary education is 74.23%, 67.79%, and 82.1% in 2006-2007 respectively. The reasons of the low enrollment in these provinces include the lack of access to schools, teachers, textbooks, education materials and understanding among parents toward the importance of education, and unattractiveness of schools. For the above reasons, improvement of primary education needs hardware improvement of learning environment and software improvement of awareness among community people and parents with improvement of school management.

In addition, most of the schools are run by the support from community except for the government teachers' salary. Therefore, sustainability which enables community to continue their support to school improvement after project finishes should be taken into consideration of cooperation approach.

Purpose

Overall Goal:Enrollment and completion of primary education in the target schools shall be improved.

Project Purpose:Education environment of primary education in the target schools shall be improved by community initiatives.

Output

1. Community initiatives for primary education shall be enhanced through community's self-planning and implementation of school improvement activities.
2. Communities manage/maintain education materials and facilities which are supported by the Project appropriately and sustainably.
3. Teachers in the target schools make and utilize education materials which are made by local resources.

Project Activities

Inputs

Input Summary by Japanese Side

• Long-term Expert(Project Management/ Basic Education)13M/M
  (48M/M in total until the Project termination)
• Equipment for the Project
• Equipment for the Expert
• Local Activity Cost