Photo: A student recites a passage from a Lao language book while his teacher follows along at The Ban Buamlao Primary School in Ban Buamlao, Laos
Laos plans to increase its literacy rate to 77.5 percent this year from roughly 76 percent last year, Lao newspaper Vientiane Times reported Tuesday.
Some 77.5 percent of Laos' total population, including 84 percent of people in the age bracket of 15-40, will have been literate by the end of 2007, the newspaper quoted Lao Deputy Minister of Education Sengdeuane Lachanthaboun as saying.
Last year, 40,000 Lao people aged 15 upwards achieved literacy, over half of whom are women, she noted.
Before 1975, the illiteracy rate in Laos was as high as 95 percent, the newspaper said.
Source: Xinhua
Photo: Audrey hands out one of the Lao alphabet books we bought from the children's book publishing and literacy program, Big Brother Mouse.
We noticed a school in the village, so we figured there were some literate kids somewhere. Based on their reactions, these kids had never seen a book before. Imagine that. They simply did not know what to make of it, nor what to do with it.
Audrey opened it and started flipping the pages. The kids got a kick out of pointing at the pictures and saying the word in Lao. Lots of giggles. In the end, we left the book with a couple of boys a few years older who looked like they could make better use of it.
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Make yourself visible, signup at samakomlao webboard. HERE
Look at the second photo I say that the 2 youngest are still with their parents, the next 2 kids only in Pre-school, and the oldest may attend the very first year of shool. In Australia where I live, kids go to the first year of Primary school at the year of 6.