This is the first, essential stage of welcoming and enabling children to go to school!

There were no nursery schools in the villages of Lang Khang in 2012, and the primary schools, most of which were built of wood, were in a poor state of repair.

Children under the age of 5 from ethnic minorities do not always speak the country's official language, which they will be taught from first grade onwards. Learning in nursery school helps to prevent children from dropping out of school in the first years of elementary school.

Nursery schools

After 12 years of work in the villages of Lang-Khang, we have built 8 nursery schools and set up nursery classes in 7 existing primary schools to enable all children aged between 3 and 5 to attend school in the 15 villages of Lang Khang.

Elementary schools

To ensure that schooling continues in the best possible conditions, we have carried out extensive renovation work on 14 elementary schools: 13 schools have been refurbished, with exterior and interior partitions repaired, ceilings installed, roofs replaced and courtyards built, and a fourteenth school has been completely rebuilt in the village of Thong Xam.

The Lang Khang primary school was completely renovated for the start of the new school year in September 2024. All 15 villages in the cluster now have school buildings that have been renovated.

Creation of school management committees

Sourires d'Enfants covers the full cost of building or renovating schools in partnership with the local authorities, who remain the managers of these public schools: the school buildings belong to the village and the teachers are civil servants appointed and paid by the Laotian Ministry of Education.

A management committee is set up within each school or school group: it brings together the village chief, representatives of the teachers and representatives of the parents, and its purpose is to manage the running of the school. The SDE team supports this committee for two to three years until it becomes fully autonomous.

The Education department of Khammouane Province regularly visits our schools to assess their operation, cleanliness and teaching activities.

In order to work together on the teacher training, in 2016 and 2017 we organised pedagogical training sessions in partnership with the GREF association. Retired French teachers specialising in kindergarten teaching led two 4-week sessions in our schools and trained Laotian trainers who have now taken over within the Education department of Khammouane Province. This has opened the door for Laotian teachers to new teaching methods, more interactive activities and a fresh look at learning.