Project Activities

WHAT IS THE "CIED PROJECT"?

The aim of the "CIED Project" is to improve the education environment of primary schools that faces the lack of education infrastructure, education materials and quality of teachers by planning and implementation by community initiatives.

It is reported that the national average of net enrollment ratio of primary education in Lao remains at 86.4% in 2006-2007, even though primary education is compulsory education. In particular, net enrollment ratios are quite low in rural areas. In response to this situation, the government of Lao P.D.R promotes a national policy in education which consists of 3 main components: improvement of access to education; improvement of quality and relevance education; improvement of education management in order to achieve the goals of "Education for All (EFA)" by 2015. However, the education gap between urban and rural areas is still wide. Especially, ethnic groups living in mountainous areas face exceptional hardships for their schooling.

The low attendance rate in rural areas is caused by various factors such as family poverty, labor needs in family especially during the farming season, a parent’s lack of education and understanding of its importance, a lack of schools, class rooms and education materials, and a lack of qualified teachers. In addition, some students give up going to school because they lose interest in studying in schools.. This causes them to fail their exams and finally forces them to repeat the same grade, or even worse – drop out of school.

These problems cannot be solved by one all-purpose cure, but solutions are different for each community. CIED Project supports each school and community to think about their own solutions based on their real situation and support school improvement activities that are proposed by the community members themselves.

CIED PROJECT TARGET AREA

CIED Project supports 90 schools in 3 southern provinces (30 schools each in Saravane, Sekong, and Attapeu). These schools are located in the following districts:

• Saravane Province (Saravane District, Laongam District)
• Sekong Province (Lamam District, Thateng District)
• Attapeu Province (Samakhixay District, Sanamxay District)