SESDP LAOS

Ministry of Education & Sports
LAO PDR

BACKGROUND

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) embarks on a major education reform, adding a year in its lower secondary sub-sector (M1-M4) and another year in its upper secondary sub-sector (M5-M7).    Efforts of the Government through the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) toward improvement of access, education relevance and quality and education governance for the sub-sector will be supported by the Asian Development Bank through the Secondary Education Support Development Project (SESDP, 2012-2018) which has been designed and agreed upon by the 2 parties.

Lao PDR is on its way to complete the operationalization of recent existing education reform which was partly implemented through the support from Basic Education Sector Development Project (BESDP) of the ADB.   BESDP, an SESDP precursor has been implemented by the Department of Secondary Education (DSE) with other MOES implementing units to implement reforms on lower secondary education. It responds to the 3 pillars of education per the Education Sector Development Framework (ESDF), that of access, quality and strengthened governance. BESDP which was supposed to run for 5 years had suffered a considerable start-up delay but had successfully delivered on its target outputs through the assistance of the International Technology Management Corporation (Intem).

BUILDING ON BESDP SUCCESS

BESDP Consultants were fielded on March 2009, and from day one, have consistently delivered successful outputs through very strong cooperation, partnership and collaboration with the Project Management Unit (PMU) and IUs of the Project. Quality results have been obtained on time with Project inputs and ensuing benefits already now enjoyed by the lower secondary students (of school buildings and classrooms constructed, new M1 and M2 textbooks and teacher guides distributed, M1 and M2 teacher training done, school and scholarship grants and more delivered.   BESDP is supposed to close on time despite the experienced delay, but had to be extended for a year to provide the needed support to properly monitor inputs for the school and scholarship grants.   BESDP with its remaining monitoring work will close in September 2013, with a one year extension.

To continue reforms in the secondary education sub-sector (SES) and to complete what BESDP has partially completed, the Government and ADB agreed on the next project phase through the SESDP. SESDP aims to build on, consolidate and carry forward reforms catalyzed with support under BESDP under all 3 ESDF pillars related to access, quality and education sector management. It will assist the MOE in completing the introduction of the new 4-year LSE curriculum this time focusing on M3 (SY 2012-'13), and M4 (SY 2014-'15), and in all 3 USE grades: M5 (SY 2014-'15), M6 (SY 2015-'16) and M7 (SY 2016-'17). SESDP will have the benefit of implementing a comprehensive program and project support based on lessons learned, and capacities built under BESDP.

The proposed Program is in close alignment with the government’s National Education Sector Reform Strategy and the Education Sector Development Framework which aligns with broader Government strategies and commitments to mention the Millennium Development Goal of which a development strategy was articulated in the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES) (GOL 2004). SESDP helps flesh out the sixth National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) 2006-2010 (GOL 2006)--which emphasized the improvement of education quality as one of its four pillars; and the seventh NSEDP 2011-2015 (MPI 2010) adopting human resource development as a key directive.

Given the experiences, insights and lessons learned in BESDP, SESDP aims to further improve the Secondary Education Sector (SES).   Specifically,   SESDP‘s project component will complement the policy program under all output areas (aligned closely with ESDF‘s pillars), promoting key thrusts such as (i) improving access by building classrooms in remote areas, providing stipends to disadvantaged students, and building dormitories for girls and ethnic groups; (ii) enhancing quality by assisting MOES in rolling out the reformed SES curriculum; improving teacher training, recruitment, and deployment; and improving performance monitoring and evaluation (M&E); and (iii) strengthening SES management by refining and operationalizing SES strategies, expanding subsector resources, and building planning capacity and other human and institutional capacities at various levels.

SESDP Experts have been fielded on September 1, 2012.

I N C R E A S I N G     A C C E S S .

Outputs to improve education access will cover the construction of 30 new LSE schools and 15 USE schools, plus a funding facility for Pupils Parents Associations (PPAs) to build school dormitories.

E N H A N C I N G    Q U A L I T Y.

Outputs to improve education quality and relevance includes strengthening pre-service teacher training systems and placement for new SE teachers, in-service teacher training and support for delivering the new SE curriculum, support for new curriculum materials (textbooks and teacher guides), teaching and learning equipment and materials to support improved teaching (in 30 new LSE schools and 15 existing ) USE schools and support for student assessment;

B E T T E R G O V E R N A N C E .

Outputs to strengthen education governance includes support for enhanced sub-sector analysis to guide decision making, capacity building for improved SE sub-sector management levels, support for community engagement in school support and management in 92 target schools and M&E and special study.

A P P L I E D       L E A R N I N G

SESDP will definitely gain from the rich experiences of the BESDP, where further improvements to delivery approaches and methodologies can be further enhanced.  BESDP, which is still ongoing is a S-M-A-R-T Project, with every action plan to reach targets being prepared by each IU. Converting all these approaches and methodologies to a S-M-A-R-T road map has been done during the preparation of the Inception Report.

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Asian Development Bank

SESDP Project Administration Manual
(click on file to download)

The difference between what
we do
and what we
are capable
of doing
would suffice
to solve most
of the world’s problems.

Ghandi

This is what we set out to do, to build the bridges connecting the challenges of development to the solutions available.

We build bridges across
people and cultures,
between individuals and teams, between systems and across sectors.

At Intem,
we’d like you to be able
to cross these bridges with us until we fulfill our vision of a better world
for all--TOGETHER.”

Dr. Bernadette V. Gonzales,
President and CEO, Intem Philippines
TEAM LEADER, SESDP

BESDP LSE SCHOLARS to be supported until USE (upper secondary Education) via SESDP

these are BESDP Scholars: (L to R) Olavan, Leh and Teh, M2 (Grade 7) students. Lavan dreams of getting into the medical services in the future while Leh and Teh both want to be teachers.

Olavan is the top of her M3 class in the mountain school (Dakchung LSE, Dakcheung District, Sekong Province). She dreams of becoming a medical practitioner someday (nurse or doctor, she hasn't decided yet). He favorite subject is Math. This country lass dreams of exploring her own country in the future, particularly Champassak...when urged to go further she said she wanted to see England. She is the 6th of 8 children.

Leh is the 2nd of the top 3 girls in class. She likes Natural Science. She walks about a kilometer each day to get to school. 2nd of 6 children, she dreams of becoming a teacher one day.
Teh also dreams of being a teacher one day and teach Lao Literature. 3rd of 5 children, she also walks a kilometer to school