Adapting the RELM for Pre-Primary Learners in Lao PDR

• In Event: Foundational Literacy, Numeracy, and Competency Assessment

Proposal

A cornerstone of inclusive and equitable quality education is ensuring children have the foundational skills needed to learn and develop when they first enter the formal school system. For young learners in the linguistically and ethnically diverse context of Lao PDR, it is essential to provide opportunities that strengthen their oral language proficiency in Lao language, the language of instruction (LOI). Enhanced comprehension of oral language in the LOI is a key determinant of reading proficiency but also supports learners’ social integration and emotional wellbeing. However, measuring language ability in a valid, age-appropriate, and culturally sensitive manner presents challenges. To address this, Catholic Relief Services in Lao PDR (CRS) adapted the Receptive and Expressive Language Module (RELM) assessment tool to measure school readiness among pre-primary students. The RELM tool was originally developed for primary students under the USAID-funded SHARE mechanism in collaboration with USAID and the University of Notre Dame.
This paper outlines the process and outcomes of adapting the RELM for pre-primary learners and use in Lao ECE spaces.
In Lao PDR, School Readiness Camps are a promising practice that aim to improve the oral language skills of young children, especially those from ethnic minority communities who speak another language at home. CRS has been implementing school readiness camps since 2016 through the LEAPS II project (Learning and Engaging All in Primary School), and has continued their implementation, adaptation, and expansion in other CRS-led readiness activities in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), USDA, and WFP. The 12-week-long camps, held from June to August 2024, familiarize children with the classroom environment and instruction through play-based, pre-literacy activities before starting Grade 1. The camps play a pivotal role in increasing access to equitable, quality education and fostering social inclusion for children aged 3-5, regardless of their language background.
While CRS had previously utilized an improved version of a semantic fluency test to assess children's oral language skills, switching to the adapted RELM tool allowed for a more comprehensive evaluation of oral language abilities. By assessing receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, listening comprehension, and semantic fluency, RELM provides a well-rounded understanding of children's literacy strengths and needs to better inform inclusive education programming and policy aimed at reducing educational disparities.
Between March and June 2024, CRS conducted an extensive adaptation process to validate the RELM tool for the Lao context. Best practices that enabled the creation of a successful tool included: involving specialists with in-depth knowledge of communications, programming, literacy, and inclusive education from different ethnic backgrounds and genders; inviting the editor of a Lao children’s book publishing company; active participation of CRS staff who trained and accompanied data enumerators during baseline and endline; and directly capturing children’s feedback through pilot testing.
A critical task was selecting culturally appropriate words and images to depict the language concepts in the RELM. Over 150 words and 300 image options were reviewed, narrowed down to a shortlist of 35 words and 100 images based on criteria such as copyright status, child familiarity, and MOES alignment.
Key adaptations included simplifying language to match spoken Lao, ensuring cultural relevance, and modifying enumerator guidance to support child-friendly and non-judgmental assessment practices. These changes were essential to ensure the tool was developmentally appropriate and sensitive to the diverse linguistic backgrounds of children
Field testing was conducted with 50 children across three schools in Khammouane Province in June 2024. Feedback from children and enumerators, along with difficulty index analysis, informed further adaptations such as recalibrating difficulty levels, reducing the number of stories in the listening comprehension subtask from 12 to 9, and clarifying instructions for semantic fluency.
In June 2024, CRS conducted a baseline assessment using the RELM with 513 children (253 boys and 260 girls) attending School Readiness Camps in Khammouane Province. A sample of six children (ages3-5) was randomly and systematically selected within 90 schools participating in the School Lunch Project, funded by USDA through WFP and implemented in partnership with MOES and CRS. This provided critical baseline data on children's oral language proficiency levels disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, district, and language ability.
Endline data collected in August 2024 showed statistically significant improvements across all four RELM domains. Non-Lao-speaking children demonstrated the most substantial gains, with performance increases ranging from 99.5% to 407.3% depending on the domain. These results highlight the effectiveness of the RELM tool and the School Readiness Camp model in promoting equitable learning outcomes.
School Readiness Camps were held again during the school break of 2025, reinforcing early oral language development for incoming Grade 1 students. With the start of the new school year, CRS will also initiate longitudinal tracking of student performance to assess the sustained impact of this early education intervention. Children who participated in the 2024 program will enter Grade 2 in the 2025–2026 school year. During this period, CRS will monitor their academic progress and compare the results with students from non-target schools. These findings will serve as a valuable report to help adapt and apply effective lessons for improving education among children in rural areas. The central objective of this follow-up is to examine how participation in School Readiness Camps contributes to continued enrollment, literacy development, and academic achievement, particularly among children from ethnolinguistic minority communities. These insights will be critical for informing future inclusive ECE programming and policy in Lao PDR.
Adapting the RELM for use in Lao PDR’s multilingual pre-primary education landscape was an extensive and rigorous process led by CRS. The result was a promising practice: a locally appropriate and technically robust language comprehension assessment tailored to the Lao context and the developmental levels of young children.
Importantly, the RELM tool complemented the School Readiness Camp, serving as a critical mechanism to assess whether these camps were effectively supporting language development among both Lao and non-Lao learners. By using the RELM to monitor language comprehension progress, CRS was able to generate evidence on the impact of its early learning interventions and ensure that children from diverse linguistic backgrounds were not left behind.

Authors

• Dalavone Phonevilaysack, Catholic Relief Services

• Tenzin S Arya, Catholic Relief Services (CRS)