In collaboration with the Laotian Ministry of Education and Sports, the Australian Embassy visited Savannakhet Province recently to check on BEQUAL’s progress. BEQUAL is a program the Australian Government and USAID implemented to improve the quality of education and increase access to schooling in Laos, specifically targeting rural areas. The program visit was conducted to observe if the strategies put in place by the program really were improving teacher training and better student performance outcomes.
It represented the considerable section of the visit made towards the exploration of Teacher Training College, which Savannakhet is expected to become an important place in the region to have professionalism further promoted. TTC staff remains dedicated to enhancing teaching standards and strengthening outcomes within this community, while contributing to the broader efforts of improving the Lao Education System through BEQUAL.
Among the major initiatives under BEQUAL is the school-based Continuous Professional Development (CPD) system. Piloted in 30 districts, including Savannakhet, this system will help provide teachers with flexible, ongoing training that can be customized to suit their needs. It will help improve teaching practices and subsequently improve learning outcomes for students.
Since two different phases of the BEQUAL programme had been implemented, the programmes ran from 2015 to 2022 focused on improving in-service teachers’ training, updating primary nationwide curriculum, and enhancing primary pre-service teacher diploma courses. This phase also reinforced the Research Institute for Educational Sciences and the Department of Teacher Education to be in line with standards of national education.
The second phase of the program started in July 2022 and is set to run until June 2026. The focus is on refining the CPD system to be more responsive to the needs of teachers. A critical component of this phase is the active engagement of Teacher Training Colleges and District Education and Sports Bureaus in delivering professional development at the local level. The aim is to create a sustainable, teacher-driven model that can be scaled across the country.
Local stakeholders such as educators and education officials strongly support the program, knowing the positive influence it exerts on teaching practices and subsequently on learning outcomes. The visit to Savannakhet by the Australian Embassy is part of an annual monitoring exercise to check how the program is going in terms of progress and areas for improvement, thus ensuring continued success in improving the education system of Laos.
