What I learned from Laos: In education, one size doesn’t fit all
Luang Prabang, Laos
“Why Laos?” After visiting, now I know.
Leslie Engle Young, our Director of Impact, and I arrived in Laos during the rainy season, just days after torrential monsoon rains ravaged Myanmar, India and Bangladesh; at the same time, the region was in the midst of its worst rice harvest in 30 years, due to a major drought (ironic, considering our landing was the last chance I had to enjoy dry clothing during the trip).
After flying between jagged mountain terrain, approaching Luang Prabang above the swollen Mekong River and in thick fog, I was happy to arrive safely on the ground.
Looking out the window, beyond the Bangkok Air twin props, I couldn’t help but wonder, just as a prospective donor had asked me in New York just hours before my departure: “Why Laos?”
Over the course of the following week, the answer would reveal itself as I was introduced to this unique country.
The first revelation was the Lao people. It’s said that Buddhist monks don’t travel during Lenten rainy season, to avoid accidentally stepping on young plants and insects. Whether it was the constant rain or the gentleness and humility of the Lao people, the image stuck with me throughout the week. I did my best to step gently.
The next revelation was the magnificence of mountains, rivers, lush greens and sweeping vistas. Driving for an hour through the Lao countryside is like flipping through a stack of picturesque postcards.
Having begun its journey to a modern nation just a half century ago, economic progress has been steady for this country of 7 million. A natural resource extraction driven economy has grown for years at 7% or more, fueling substantial investment in hydropower and road infrastructure, and helping to nearly halve the poverty rate since 1992.
“Why Laos?” Of course, Laos.
Because Laos presents deep educational need, extreme poverty in rural regions, and ethnic and cultural complexities. PoP works in countries with enormous need, great opportunity and tangled implementation issues. Laos is no exception, but there are complications.
The rugged terrain is complication number one. It’s no small feat to bring infrastructure, build schools and provide trained teachers to the countless villages nestled between rivers and mountains.
The Lao government has taken progressive strides to alleviate these difficulties, adding preschools to many communities with the goal of providing three years of free early childhood education beginning at 3 years old.
In fact, PoP’s first ever school build, in honor of Adam Braun’s grandmother, is a single classroom preschool here. PoP has partnered with the national and local government to build over 60 schools thus far.
Yet, direct government investment in student learning materials, equipment and teacher training is low. Rural families shoulder some of this burden from their subsistence agriculture income. The PoP Laos team, led by co-Directors Lanoy Keosuvan and Ya Laoxayda, is seeking government permissions to provide teacher support, student literacy materials and the clearance to assess student outcomes.
Decisions are made deliberately in Laos and the bureaucratic process can test patience. We remain optimistic and know that government concurrence is necessary to achieve our educational mission.
The true test of the PoP partnership model is whether we stick to it when progress is slow. Whether we can avoid the temptation and false satisfaction of unilateral decision-making.
In my Stanford MBA program and my work at Bain & Company, I was trained to look for “economies of scale” and “operational efficiencies.” Both are hard to come by in educating the developing world’s children. An indelible impression of my first visits to Laos, Guatemala and Ghana is the uniqueness of the conditions we face from country to country.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to bringing education to every child.
On school builds, the more straightforward phase of PoP’s educational impact, we adapt blueprints for local site conditions and source available construction materials. Our partnerships take on a local flavor as well, with varying levels of government oversight during construction and forms of community input. And, post-build programming, from WASH to literacy, must be aligned with national curricula and the appetite for assistance.
The investments we make in national, district and community relationships, while “inefficient” in that they often take time to develop, will be potent in the long view. I see a day soon where even the most remote rural community is technology enabled, allowing us to offer a magic formula for global education: locally customized, globally efficient, economical, high-quality education.
On the flight to Bangkok, I marveled at the recent announcement by Facebook that it has developed a high altitude drone, Aquila, that may soon beam high bandwidth internet signals to ground via laser, connecting the remaining 60% of the world’s population who currently lives off-the-grid.
PoP is investing in relationship intensive solutions now, building a permission pathway for broadband powered solutions in the future.
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Check out #PoPFieldTrip on Instagram to follow our adventures in Guatemala, Ghana and Laos.
