ChildFund in Partnerships for Primary Education Improvement in Lao PDR

ChildFund in Laos (CFL) has been working in Houameuang District, Houaphanh Province, Lao PDR since 2016 with the roll out of BEQUAL as well as Early Childhood Education (ECE) project funded by ChildFund Korea. Scaling-up to Basic Education in Lao PDR project Phase I (SABEL I) was a scaling up of the BEQUAL project. From 2018 to 2021, SABEL project I focused on improving learning outcomes in Lao language, promoting inclusion of children with disabilities and girls by working with Village Education Development Committees (VEDCs), and families and improving hygiene practices in 62 schools and teaching of multi-grade classes.

SABEL project Phase I has experienced positive achievements, particularly improving children’s reading outcomes in Lao language, improved hygiene practices among students and parents, increased parents’ knowledge over the importance of education for children with disabilities and upskilled VEDC’s understanding to develop Village Education Development Plans. Even though, there is a lot of progress lead being done in the past years, there are still a lot of challenges in improving learning outcomes of primary school students especially for ethnic students and students with different ability due to the lack of capacity, experiences and adequate teaching materials for teachers.

With the support from ChildFund Korea (CFK) and partnership with Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), CFL has therefore extended SABEL project in phase II, focuses on expanding existing good practices and lesson learnt from the overall project implementation, prioritising on the improvement of student’s learning outcomes, school accessibility for vulnerable children in ethnic communities including girls and children with disabilities, and school environment improvement through community participations in 30 target schools of Houameuang District, Houaphanh Province.

SABEL Phase II MoU singing ceremony between MoES, represented by Houaphanh Provincial Education and Sport Service (PESS) and CFL has been witnessed by the representatives from relevance government bodies at national and sub-national levels, development partners and donor. The project implementation will be commenced from the date of approval to 31 October 2025, with the total budget of 900,000,000 KRW, equivalent of 569.647,00 USD.

CFL is the representative office of ChildFund Australia (CFA) – an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities. CFL began working in Laos in 2010 and works in partnership with government of Laos, focuses on upholding child rights and improving access to quality education, ChildFund in Laos also prioritises projects which focus on child nutrition, sexual reproductive health and rights, media literacy and job readiness in Houaphanh, Xieng Khouang, Phongsaly, Sayabouly, Luang Prabang, Khammouane, Savannakhet, Sekong Provinces and Vientiane capital.