Australia’s assistance helps improve quality of education in Laos
14 September, 2012
Senator Claire Moore with school children at Phonmany school, Nambark District Luang Prabang Province. Photo: Kimberly Radford (DFAT)
The children of the Phonmany village in Laos took great pride in showing an Australian Parliamentary Delegation their new classrooms during an official visit last week.
The Delegation, led by Queensland Senator Claire Moore, attended the opening ceremony of the school in Phonmany village in the province of Luang Prabang.
“There is nothing that makes you prouder of the work that our AusAID people do and the way that the Australian community gets involved than seeing the way that communities can change lives and the joy of the children showing us their classrooms,” Senator Moore told her parliamentary colleagues in the Senate chamber.
One of the three strategic priorities of the Australian aid program in Laos is to ensure all children complete a full course of quality basic education in line with Millennium Development Goal 2. For the boys and girls of Laos this means they will have easier access to basic education.
Australia’s education assistance in Laos’ three most northern provinces lifted primary school enrolment rates from 73 per cent in 2006 to 91 per cent in the 2010-11 school year.
More than 1,000 school principals and 100 teachers have been trained as a part of an assistance package to improve the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools in the 56 most educationally disadvantaged districts.
Australia has provided development assistance to Laos for more than 50 years. The value of our total assistance delivered in 2011-12 was $49.3 million, growing to $54.9 million this financial year (2012-13).
The Australian parliamentarians who joined Senator Moore in the official visit included the Hon Dr Sharman Stone MP, Mr John Forrest MP and Senator Alan Eggleston.
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