Volunteering in a school in Laos offers a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of local children and communities. Many organizations will charge extortionate fees to volunteer, which is not ideal if you are traveling on a budget. In this article I will outline my personal experience Volunteering in a school in Laos for a very low cost, and how you can do the same!
Why VOLUNTEER in a school in Laos?
English proficiency levels in Laos are much lower compared to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. This is due to their limited access to quality education, which is particularly prevalent in rural areas where there are fewer financial resources and infrastructure.
By volunteering to teach English in schools, you can provide students with essential language skills that can help them access further economic opportunities, such as working abroad or in tourism where wages are higher. This can help to break intergenerational poverty traps whereby rural subsistence farming is the only way to make a living, and can contribute to the socioeconomic development of Laos.
Tonkit School
Time to delve into our experience volunteering! My partner and I volunteered at Tonkit School, situated between the tourist havens of Luang Prabang and Nong Khiaw.
The school was in a rural under-developed region, where tourists are seldom seen and the English language is unknown.
Whilst I have taught English Online. this was the first time that we had taught English in person. Without prior experience, formal training, or sufficient guidance, we felt slightly apprehensive about teaching a classroom of children! However, their desire was simply for the children to have exposure to Native English speakers, thus us being there was adequate.
The first lesson began with us standing in front of a classroom full of excited, amazed, and slightly perplexed young children. We found the first day the most challenging while we were figuring out how to teach. The children, particularly the younger ones, had a very low level of English and thus we had a range of basic phrases and vocabulary we could teach!
We came better prepared for lessons on the following days, where we played games and tried to make the children converse basic English phrases and vocabulary. This is an immersive way to learn to teach, to be thrown into the deep end, and to crawl your way out, whilst learning along the way.
We were fortunate that our assistant Tin would translate our dictum from English to Lao so the children could understand the direction of the lesson. I have never seen kids that are so well behaved in my whole life, and they shared a genuine curiosity and desire to learn English, which made the experience more comfortable, as we could focus wholly on teaching.
The School began at 8:30 am and ended at 4 pm, however, we were never required to teach for longer than 3 hours a day. There was an hour-and-a-half lunch break and two 30-minute breaks during the day, where we could relax in the hammock, take a nap, or thrash the kids at football.
We were treated to 3 tasty meals a day, which consisted of sticky rice, vegetables, and a meat/fish dish. The school also had two adorable dogs!
We took valuable skills and rich experiences from our time at Tonkit School. The children showed such kindness and warmth and their energy was truly vibrant. We made a deep connection to them and we were left with fond memories of our time volunteering at Tonkit school. We wished we could have stayed for a longer time!
How To Contact Tonkit School?
If you are interested in this opportunity after reading then please contact Mr Siphone, the school director via:
WhatsApp 020 599 61 669 or Email [email protected]
The fee is 120,000 KIP per day ($5.75) to stay in the guesthouse and for 3 meals a day. This worked out to be only 60,000 KIP each for myself and my partner, which is extremely reasonable, especially if you compare this to NGOs in Lao such as SEALAO which charges upwards of $12 a day to volunteer in a Westernized organization.
Final Thoughts
Volunteering at Tonkit School, feeling that we were making a positive impact on the children’s journey in learning English on a deeply personal level, was a transformative and rewarding experience for us. We now feel confident in leading English lessons, and the experience gained will aid us in continuing teaching as we travel around South-East Asia. We highly recommend this experience, and you should contact Tonkit School if you are interested as they always want new volunteers!