Supporting school readiness of minority language children in Laos through community-owned programs

• In Event: Investing in transition: a path to sustainable early childhood development and education

Proposal

In Laos, the official language of instruction is Lao even in schools where most children speak a minority language. Data from 2015 showed that about 23% of children in Savannakhet Province dropped-out in Grade 1 (G1), compared to only 10% nationally (Laos Education Management Information System, 2015). The Lao Ministry of Education and Sports attributes this to several factors, the most compelling of which is that for 76% of children in Savannakhet, G1 is their first exposure to a classroom environment and the Lao language. Given this context, CRS piloted a community-led school readiness camp for six weeks in 24 villages in rural Savannakhet Province aimed at developing oral language skills and supporting school readiness for a positive transition into G1.
The School Readiness Camps are part of CRS’ Learning and Engaging All in Primary School II (LEAPS II) Project funded by USDA. The camps align with the goal of LEAPS II to improve literacy of primary school-age children (ages 6 to 11). Specifically, the School Readiness Camps aim to improve literacy of pre G1 children (ages 5 and 6) to decrease drop-out; provide early exposure to a classroom-like environment including reading, writing and print; and to support both Lao-speaking and non-Lao speaking children to develop expressive Lao language skills before entering G1. The camps were held twice a week over six weeks in July and August 2018. CRS developed the Reading Readiness Camp curriculum and trained local community volunteers (often high school students) to lead the camps in their respective villages.
A mixed-method evaluation explored (and will continue to explore) to what degree pre-G1 students would be better prepared for school after participating in the camps. In this presentation, we will focus on pre and post test results of oral expressive vocabulary- a foundational skill of literacy development and a predictor of reading ability. Using an expressive vocabulary measurement tool (Semantic Fluency Test (SFT) developed by American Institutes for Research in 2016), pre and post camp data were collected from 415 students (non-Lao and Lao speakers) in 24 intervention villages and 12 non-intervention villages, for comparison. The average scores on the SFT significantly increased for children who participated in the camp. The average number of words per minute (wpm) spoken by students in the intervention villages significantly increased by 3.22 wpm (6.60 to 9.82), while in the comparison group it rose only 0.67 wpm (4.71 to 5.38). Furthermore, and a key finding, is that non-Lao speakers who attended the camp benefited more than their Lao speaking peers at statistically significant levels. From pre-test to post-test, the average SFT score for non-Lao speakers nearly doubled (4.25 to 8.43). These post-test scores were comparable to the post-test scores of the Lao speaking students.
The results are promising and show that targeting pre-G1 students, both Lao and non-Lao speakers, with school readiness camps- a low cost and community-owned initiative- could be an effective way to prepare children to enter G1 and increase oral language skills and school readiness. Additionally, the results provide a promising model to incorporate non-Lao speakers into the formal Lao education system, which has the potential to decrease dropout among early primary age students and mitigate the disadvantages minority language speakers face in the Lao education system.

Author

• Cornelia Sage, Catholic Relief Services