Ms Vanessa Hegarty, First Secretary, Australian Embassy, said “Australia and the MoES collaborated to pilot new teaching methods to increase inclusion of all children in the education system, especially disadvantaged children who speak another language other than Lao at home. The SLP is a great example of how a successful small pilot can become a program approved for teaching nationwide.”

In preparation for the national roll out, 184,680 colorful textbooks and 13,680 teacher guides, as well as supplementary teaching and learning materials (13,680 flashcard sets, 27,200 story cards and 27,200 bingo game sets) were distributed nationwide. These materials have been provided to grade 1 teachers and will be available for all schools with non-Lao speaking students who are implementing the SLP.

Teaching a new curriculum is always challenging for teachers. Cascade training started in July and will last until mid-September to equip grade 1 teachers with the tools they need to use the SLP materials and support grade 1 students. 63 Master Trainers (41% female) trained 603 Provincial Trainers who then delivered 530 workshops of 3 days for 14,524 grade 1 teachers, primary school principals and pedagogical support providers. The Master and Provincial Trainers have been delivering curriculum training since the introduction of the revised primary curriculum in 2019; they are skilled in facilitating training and with in-depth curriculum knowledge, gained conducting training on the revised curriculum for five years. The training included all grade 1 teachers, even the teachers who may not have non-Lao speaking students in their class, to ensure that all grade 1 teachers can provide SLP when required in the future.

One of the Provincial Trainers explains “On Day 1, participants learned about language teaching techniques for children and effective methods to support their students’ language learning. They also became familiar with the SLP teaching and learning materials. On Day 2, participants experienced some activities of the program. They also created a paper puppet and practiced using it for an SLP activity demonstration. The Day 3 was also very active and hands-on with teachers preparing and delivering SLP activities in microteaching sessions, while pedagogical support staff were learning about tools and resources to support SLP teachers.”

Additional opportunities to provide support to SLP teachers are being developed by the Ministry. A video explaining five techniques to teach students who do not speak Lao as their first language is already available on ວິດີໂອສໍາລັບການພັດທະນາຄູ Teacher Development Videos YouTube channel. A second video demonstrating three main activities of the Spoken Lao Program was filmed last week and will be released soon. A specific SLP Teacher Support Pack is also under development.