The National Assembly (NA) has advised the government to differentiate teachers from other civil servants to ensure an adequate supply of educators to meet the country's needs.
Teachers are currently supplied to schools based on a quota of civil servant numbers closely related to budget allocations.
However, the NA has proposed the government change the system for teacher recruitment to be based on student numbers instead.
Vice President of the National Assembly, Dr Xaysomphone Phomvihane, said the requirement for teachers in the 2008-09 academic year based on student numbers had reached more than 6,000, but the quota supplied based on civil servant numbers was only 3,500.
That figure was only adequate to replace teachers who retired or left their jobs during the year, and didn't take into account the growth in student numbers.
Dr Xaysomphone said about 9,000 teachers are expected to be required for the 2009-10 academic year.
In some provinces, authorities allocate provincial funding towards hiring contract teachers pending the allocation of teacher quotas made to their provinces.
Under the new proposal, specific funding will be allocated for teachers in a similar system currently used for the police and armed forces.
A specially established board would be set up to monitor teachers' performance and encourage them to improve.
Teachers could also be ordered to leave their jobs if the board believed their performance was inadequate.
Director General of the Department of Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, Associate Professor Dr Kongsy Sengmany, said the department was drafting a decree relating to the new system to be submitted to the government for consideration and approval.
The decree will stipulate sources of funding for teachers, particularly national budget allocations, and the role of teachers in improving teaching methods.
Education laws stipulate that a minimum of 18 percent of the national annual budget should be allocated to the education sector, but last year only 15 percent of the budget was allocated to this field.
The NA has said no less than 15.5 percent of the state budget should go to the education sector.
Vice Mayor of Vientiane Somvandy Nathavong said the proposed new system was a good idea because the number of students continued to increase every year.
“If we don't do this, teacher shortages will continue. The quota for teachers is very small and does not meet demand,” he said.
“Children in rural areas will continue to suffer as many teachers do not want to teach in remote areas. If we don't have enough funding, we should focus primarily on remote areas to help our children.”
Between 6,000 and 7,000 more are needed to address the shortage. There are currently about 58,000 teachers in Laos .
In some areas, one teacher is responsible for up to 70 students. The new proposal suggests a ratio of between 30 and 35 students per teacher as a way to improve education standards in Laos .
Many teachers want to work only in the cities where facilities are better. Increased salaries have been mooted as a way to encourage more to head to those parts of the country where they are most needed.
This is good news.... and I specially like this statement "A specially established board would be set up to monitor teachers' performance and encourage them to improve..........Increased salaries have been mooted as a way to encourage more to head to those parts of the country where they are most needed. "
Ho! Thanks for helping us my friend. I'm working in laos since I have finished my University. I have been working in remote area since 1997 up to date to support and help local communities for better living condition. and Thanks for all of your support my country. even you are not in Laos.
if the government do like what it is said, that would be good for Lao education. However, so far the government have had many good objectives and ideologies but implementation is not always successful. For example, in rural areas, teachers could not received salary when the month ends, sometimes a few months later they can receive it. This is one example of more thousand problems of education in Laos.
