Chapter 4: Education and literacy
Educational characteristics of the population in the 2005 Lao Census were restricted to persons aged 6 years and over. The information on education and literacy was obtained by three standard questions on:
􀂙 School attendance,
􀂙 Educational attainment, and
􀂙 Literacy
School attendance is defined as attendance at any regular accredited educational institution or program, public or private, for organized learning at any level of education. It was specified as:
Has (name) ever attended school?
􀂙 Never been to school
􀂙 Currently at school
􀂙 Left school
􀂙 (No answer)
Persons who are currently at school or have left school should specify their educational attainment, i.e. their highest grade completed in the educational system divided by basic education and a higher (vocational) education:
Basic education:
􀂙 None (no level completed)
􀂙 Primary school (grades 1-6)
􀂙 Lower secondary school (grades 1-3)
􀂙 Upper secondary school (grades 4-6
Higher (vocational) education:
􀂙 First level
􀂙 Middle level
􀂙 High level/University
􀂙 Post graduate level
􀂙 Other
Information on level of completed education meant the completion of a full academic year/course. For example, a child currently attending grade one would not have completed grade one yet and would therefore be in the category of “no level completed”. Also, all persons in the category “never been to school” in the question on school attendance were categorized as “No level completed”.
On literacy there was one question only also to be answered by all persons aged 6 years and over:
Can (name) read and write Lao?
Response alternatives:
􀂙 Yes
􀂙 No
In order to obtain correct information on literacy it is necessary to carry out reading as well as writing tests. Such an approach is not viable with the limited time given to the enumeration.
Hence, the measure of literacy rates based on the census information should be considered as fairly crude one.
4.1 Population by School Attendance
Table 4.1 presents the distribution of the population aged six years and above by school attendance by sex, province and urban/rural areas. According to the 2005 census 23 percent of the population had never been to school, 28 percent were at school and 47 percent had left school. A much higher percentage of women than men had never been to school, 30 percent for women compared to 16 percent for men.
As the following table shows, comparing the 2005 census data with the 1995 census data, the share of population “never been to school” has dropped markedly for both sexes but actually more for women than men. Also substantial improvements have been made across regional areas, somewhat better in urban areas. Female attendance in rural areas is still the lowest at 37 percent in 2005.
With increasing ages the proportion of “never been to school” will become larger, as previous cohorts of people had fewer opportunities to attend school. Figure 4.2 describes how this pattern looks like for men and women. In every age group the percentage of women who never went to school is higher than for men, but the difference grows by increasing ages.
Those who have “left school” can be divided into four categories, (a) those, who are above school ages, (more than 16 for basic education) and have left without completing all grades and (b) those in the same ages that have left school with completion and (c) those who are still at school ages and have left school with completed basic education and finally (d) those whose at the same ages have left school with incomplete basic education. Categories (a) and (d) are “drop outs”.
Table 4.2 shows the percentages of those at school age who already left school are lower in 2005 than in 1995 in age groups 6-9 and 10-14 but higher in the age group 15-19. In 2005, in this group 42 percent had left school (33 percent for girls and 50 percent for boys) compared to 37 percent in 1995, (41 and 33 percent for girls and boys, respectively). Although school attendance has improved since 1995, it seems there is a tendency to leave school earlier. Figure 4.1 also illustrates school attendance (never been to school) by province. Most people 6 years and above have attended school in the Capital while almost half of that population in Phongsaly had never been to school.
School attendance by sex and ethnic group is presented in Tables 4.3 for both sexes and 4.3.1 for females and 4.3.2 for males. The data reveal that 12 percent of Lao had never gone to school and a few other groups have attendance below 20 percent. Among the larger ethnic groups 33 percent of Khmou had never been to school, 42 percent of Hmong and 25 percent of Phouthay. For Tri, Akha and Lolo the percentages of never been to school are as high as 75 percent and more. However, there have been improvements for all ethnic groups but females are behind in all groups; low differences among some groups such as Lao, Ngouan, Thaineua, Thaen and Moy or large differences for groups like Lamed, Katang, Ta-oy, Cheng, Sdang, Pacoh and Hmong.
4.2. School Enrolment
School enrolment rates are the number of persons currently attending school per hundred persons in the same age group. Such calculations are presented in Table 4.4 for females, males and both sexes for single years starting from age 6 up to 25 years. The rationale for setting the limit at 25 is that there are very few people attending school after that age. The table shows that the enrolment rate peaks at 11 years (90 percent for males and 86 percent for females) and then declines quite rapidly. It also demonstrates that enrolment is higher for boys and girls across all ages but the differences are rather small for ages up to 10 years.
School enrolment rates have improved between 1995 and 2005 as the figure 4.3 and 4.4 illustrate. Improvements are more accentuated for girls than for boys and there are higher rates for girls in all ages while the higher rates for boys are not maintained from age 14 up 18 years of age.
4.3. Highest Education Completed
Of all persons 6 years and over, 26 percent had not gotten any education, down from 43 percent in 1995. About 16 percent had completed primary school, 6 percent completed lower secondary and 5 percent upper secondary schools, respectively. Improvements in completed highest education tend to be small even with increasing enrolment rates for low ages. There are larger shares of persons completed school across all levels comparing 2005 with 1995 censuses (see table 4.5).
Table 4.5 shows data on school completion by province. The changes between 1995 and 2005 are further illustrated in figures 4.5 (primary school) and 4.6 (lower secondary school). Interestingly, there are no changes in the share that have completed primary school in Vientiane Capital. In all other provinces there are higher completion rates and particular Xayaboury province seems to have been successful.
Table 4.6
presents completion rates by age group which also provides indications of
dropouts in primary and secondary school. Of girls at ages 10-14 about 15
percent had completed primary school (about 7 percent in 1995) and for boys
14 percent (7 percent in 1995). Similarly in age group 15-19 the completion
rate for girls was 10 percent and for boys 12 percent (7 percent in 1995
for both sexes). In age group 20-24 there was a rate of 12 percent for girls
and 21 percent for boys (7 and 10 percent in 1995, respectively). It seems
that girls, when it comes to completion, are better in primary school but
boys tend to have better rate in secondary schools. Also when it comes to
higher education men outnumber women with two times as many students with
completion record. (Population Aged 6 years and Above and Highest Level of Education
Completed)
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4.4. Literacy Rates
As already noted, literacy information from a census may not be as exact as in special surveys where tests can be made. However, the percentage of population aged 15 and above is very similar to recently made special surveys on literacy and also compared to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey (LECS) in 2002.
73 persons out of 100 were literate according to the 2005 census. See table 4.7. In 1995 census the literacy rate was 60 percent. The literacy rate was highest in Vientiane Capital (92 percent) and lowest in Phongsaly (43 percent). The rate was also higher in urban areas (89 percent) and lowest (54 percent) were in rural areas without road.
Men were more literate than women, 83 compared to 63 percent, but the difference was larger in 1995 when men’s and women’s rate was 74 and 48 percent, respectively. Even across all ages men were more literate than women, see Table 4.8. There were also improvements across all age groups compared to 1995 but a more accentuated for women as figures 4.7 and 4.8 illustrate. These figures also show the impact education has on literacy, in lower ages the literacy rates are high and the ability to read and write declines with age.
The literacy rate differed considerably among the ethnic groups (see table 4.9). The rate was higher than national average for Lao ethnic group was 85 percent, Moy 84 percent, Ngouan 81 percent, Thainuea 80 percent, Tai 77 percent and Lue 76 percent. The rate was in particular low for Lahoo, Akha, Lolo and Tri. With the exception of Lao the literacy rate for the minorities were 55 percent. This is relatively low compared to Lao ethnic group, for female minorities 41 percent of which Lao females 79 percent, and for male minorities’ 70 percent of which Lao male 91 percent. Thus women in particular are lacking behind men among minorities.
Contents:
- Population Size and structure
- Population Distribution and Migration Household Characteristics
- Education and Literacy
- Activity and Labor Force
- Fertility
- Mortality
- Housing Characteristics
- Population Projections
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