Seven-year curriculum of secondary education to kick off in 2009

(KPL) The Lao government has decided to increase the secondary education in schools by one more year and students will have to spend seven instead of six years in secondary schools, to start from 2009.

According to the Ministry of Education, the number of years that students will have to spend on general education will be increased from 11 to 12 years as the lower secondary education years will be increased from three to four years. The director of the General Education Department, Mr Lifoung said the secondary level education should be reformed so that there would be a balance between the lower and upper levels. That is why there is this increment to seven years.He also said the Secondary Education Department had received financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a sum of US$12.6 million to fund the reform of the curriculum to seven years of secondary schooling.

The finance will be used in 20 districts of six provinces: Bokeo, Luang Namtha, Savannakhet, Khammouane, Champassak and Attapeu, he said.

The Ministry would like to have an effective education system and so it asked every province to give emphasis to the ideological affairs, to reduce the rate of school drop-out and to solve the problem of shortage of teachers. At the present, there are 1,052 secondary schools across the country, including 691 lower secondary schools, 31 upper ones, and 330 general ones. For the 2007-2008 academic year, 43,689 students sat for the entrance examination and more than 95 per cent passed.