Oudomxay Province Secondary School at Ano
The first lower secondary school was built in Ano District of Oudomxay Province. The school gives children the opportunity to attend school and is close enough for many of them to go home each weekend. The few who went to school before were too far from home and were often isolated because they are from a minority ethnic group. Many would have dropped out before finishing secondary school if a school had not opened in their district, closer to home and with others who share their background.
Report on New Rural School Serving Ethnic Minority Communities
Oudomxay Province
For many years Global Ministries through its partnership with Church World Service (CWS) and the coordination of Global Ministries staff, social worker Xuyen Dangers, has worked in areas of education in Laos. Global Ministries also has worked with CWS in the reinforcement of school infrastructure in remote, rural Laotian communities over the years. CWS is currently establishing “lower secondary” (grades six through nine) schools in a rural ethnic minority area in Oudomxay Province. This comes after seven years of emphasis on establishing elementary schools in the area. The establishment of secondary schools enables ethnic minority children who have completed fifth grade to continue their education, something that had not been an opportunity.
The first lower secondary school was built in Ano District of Oudomxay Province. The school gives children the opportunity to attend school and is close enough for many of them to go home each weekend. The few who went to school before were too far from home and were often isolated because they are from a minority ethnic group. Many would have dropped out before finishing secondary school if a school had not opened in their district, closer to home and with others who share their background.
Though the school has only recently been completed, the number of children expected to attend the new lower secondary school in Ano District is 150-200 per year for the first three to four years of operation. These children will be the most highly educated members of their families and villages and will bring benefits to their families as well as their village communities.
CWS staff in Laos will continue to work with this school for several years as a part of their ongoing program of “Basic Education Improvement in Isolated and Minority Areas” in Laos.
To reduce poverty through education, especially in rural communities of ethnic minority populations, is an important Critical Presence of Global Ministries in Southern Asia. By providing secondary education to the minority people in this area, there will be hope and opportunities for members of these communities to go on to higher education (including university-level) where they may become teachers, doctors, agriculturalists, social workers–professions which are now sadly missing from these minority areas.
To read about the second school planned for Oudomxay Province, click here: http://globalministries.org/sasia/projects/rural-school-in-oudomxay.html