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Can’t beat a good book

Grade 5 student Bau Kiu enjoying the new books at his new primary school in Nong Por Village, Laos. Photo: Jerry Galea/OxfamAUS

It can be tough trying to get a good education when your school has no roof, walls, desks, chairs, black boards or books. Even tougher, when you reach Grade 3 and have to spend up to two hours walking over a mountain to the nearest village just so you can continue going to school.

But that was daily reality for the children of Nong Por village, in northern Laos, until February, this year, when their new school opened its doors.

Not only does the new school have five classrooms, complete with black boards, desks, benches and teaching materials, but also a toilet block, a teacher’s house and a library filled with new books – something which has made Grade One student Sa Pa Wang particularly happy.

“I like learning; best of all I like reading books in the library,” she says. “I don’t have a favourite [book], I like them all. When I finish school I want to be a doctor so I can help people.”

Bigger and better resources mean the school can now offer five grades, instead of two, and reach a greater number of local children. Student numbers have risen from just 40 last year, to 157 this year, including 68 girls. It also means that difficulties in attracting and keeping good quality teachers are things of the past.

“Before we had this school, children would go to the fields with their mother and work, or look after younger children at home while their parents go to the field. Now most children come to school,” village leader Gia Gio La says.

“It is very easy to get teachers here now,” School Director Kham Luang adds. “Teachers from other villages now want to come here to teach.”

Our work in Nong Por extends beyond education. Since our program began here in 2001, we have worked with the community to install gravity-fed clean water and irrigation systems, establish a development fund, support poultry and pig raising projects, and build a road.

“The lives of people in our village have improved,” Gia Gio Loa says. “Children can attend school, villagers can access the district market and hospital, livelihoods have improved and people have enough rice to eat. We are very happy.”