Achieve Universal Primary Education
 Education is among the better-performing sectors in Lao PDR, as reflected in continuous progress across all key indicators. Net enrolment rates in primary schools rose from 58 percent of primary school-age children in 1991 to 84 percent in 2005.
Progress in retention of students at the primary level, however, is slow, as in other countries of a comparable level of human development. The primary completion rate increased by slightly more than 1 percentage point per year during the period 1991-2003. At this rate, the MDG target looks beyond reach. Literacy rates increased nationwide, and priority districts improved more than the national average. At primary age (basic education), literacy almost doubled, from 31% percent to 58 percent. The increase in the secondary age groups was more modest.
National averages hide variations across regions, and often provinces with low enrolment rates are those with high proportions of rural, poor and children of different ethnic dialect speaking groups. Considerable differences persist in literacy rates between Lao native-speaking and ethnic dialect speaking groups.
Meeting the targets:
Pushing up enrolment and literacy rates are usually the first policy interventions of any government. While progress on both these indicators has been satisfactory so far in Lao PDR, reaching the last 15 to 20 percent of the population is always hard and will require additional efforts and resources. It also is important to ensure that the Government's push toward attaining the MDG enrolment and literacy targets is such that it benefits all people, regardless of their geographic location, gender or wealth.
Effective public expenditure management reform is required to allocate adequate resources and infrastructure across provinces in order to allow all pupils to complete
primary and lower secondary education; improve the quality of education and curriculum; and develop a pool of trained teachers. This will contribute to building the nation's human resource capacity and extending educational opportunities to all. Special efforts should be made to extend the benefits of education to people without adequate access to basic education. Improvement in enrolment rates should be combined with improvement in teacher training to ensure modern methods of teaching sciences, languages and technology.
See indicators for MDG 2
Update from the 2010 UNDP report
Beyond the Midpoint: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals:
In the education sector, enrolment in primary school shows good progress, with a rate of more than 89 percent in 2008.However, this masks wide disparities again between urban/rural areas, with high rates of illiteracy in rural areas and among non-Lao ethnic groups. Challenges remain in addressing the need for greater access for girls at all school levels, and in improving overall retention rates.
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