Supporting Community Initiative for primary Education Development in the southern provinces (CIED) project, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), took an integrated approach by focusing on advocating for better student to teacher ratios, resourcing classrooms, teacher capacity building, as well as building a parent teacher framework to provide a platform for parents to take a more active role in the education of their children.
Donors: JICA
Amount: $527,084 AUD
Start: 9th June 2008
Finish: 31st March 2009
Location: Attapeu Province
Main Objective:
- Fully resourced classrooms that can function properly through the school year
- Mitigation if any access problems – cost, roads, cultural beliefs/ practices, family activities
- More support for teachers in their roles – including teacher training/ retraining
- Equip school management
- Fully functioning parent-teacher associations that see education as more than something the government is trying to inflict upon them
- Advocate for better teacher-student ratios
- Positive project and community role models for education
- Children being active in the learning process
- Children learning things relevant to their everyday lives, and using the skills learnt in school
- Children wanting to come to school and seeing the value in the education they’re receiving
- Establish appropriate networks for attaining stationery and supplies
- Encourage reading and make books available to children
- Encourage extra-curricular activities – sports, after-school groups, home work centres
- Encourage teachers to use the 20% of the curriculum that is adaptable to each practical skill that will consolidate the idea of education and schooling as useful and practical
Main Activities:
- Provide a definition of education, “what is education?”
- Instil in villagers a vision of the necessity of education
- Inform villagers about what kind of positive impacts education brings, immediately and in the future; to individuals and to the community as a whole
- Underline the relationship between education and livelihood improvement
- Change the perception of education held by parents, teachers and community, and encourages their involvement in the education process
- Explain the reasons why community involvement will be needed for improving the quantity and quality of education
- Explain the necessities of access to education in Lao PDR – as below:
- Teaching with activities, not only textbooks but action and expression should be taught
- Teaching with questions, not only giving information to school kids from one direction but asking question and encouraging interaction
- Teaching with education materials, eg. flashcards, picture books, games, other creative mediums
- Having workshops targeted specifically for school children to ascertain their opinions and ideas about their education
- Encourage children to diarize, and write about their lives in a candid way
