Schoolchildren of pre-schools, kindergartens, and primary schools in Saravan Province are facing a shortage of teacher’s manuals and textbooks, a teacher has said.

Director General of the Pre-Primary and Primary Education Division of Saravan Province Mr Vixay Ninthakhan told KPL News yesterday that there is a lack of teacher’s manuals for the pre-school, kindergarten, and primary school students, and a shortage of textbooks for primary school students from grade 3 to grade 5.

He stressed that 608 schools with a total of 4,957 students in the province need both teacher’s manuals and textbooks. The majority of the schools lacking teacher’s manuals and textbooks are those located in rural and remote areas.

To deal with this problem, teachers put groups of four or five students together to share each textbook.

Teacher’s manuals are borrowed from other schools, copied, and distributed to the teachers, Mr Vixay explained.

In addition, many of the schools are in poor condition and overcrowded at the pre-school level posing an additional challenge for educational development in Saravan Province, he added.

In an attempt to solve this problem, Mr Vixay has called on the government, relevant sectors and international organisations to donate to the students and contribute to educational and human resource development in the province and country.

Presently, UNICEF Lao PDR, in collaboration with the ministries of Education and Sports, and Information, Culture and Tourism is broadcasting a spot for students about using and maintaining textbooks via radio and television stations nationwide.

Mr Vixay said that this spot is of great importance for the development of education in the country because it will help reduce the shortages of textbooks and save expenditures required to print textbooks.

In Saravan Province, the spot is being broadcasted via the Provincial Radio Station on the frequency FM 101.2 four times per day. They choose to broadcast during popular listening times.

When the spot is broadcast, the majority of residents in Saravan will hear it because it is being broadcast via speakers installed in each district throughout the province.

The spot has a total length of 90 seconds and is being broadcast in the three languages of Lao, Hmong, and Khmu.  It has been broadcasted since Aug 22, 2016 across the country and will run until Oct 31 of this year.

It aims to increase awareness among students in the primary and secondary schools about the importance of responsibly using and maintaining textbooks distributed by schools, as well as those purchased individually for the current academic year, so that they may be used again in coming academic years.

Source:
courtesy of KPL NEWS AGENCY

by Singkham Yengtavanh

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