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Summary and Conclusions

2020; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-981-15-3319-8_11

2214-9791

Richard Noonan,

Education systems, like all social institutions, are shaped by history. So it is with the education system in Laos. Geography has had important but varying influences. Due to its central location in Southeast Asia, for example, the Kingdom of Lan Xang became a hub for overland trade, enriching it both economically and culturally. Later, however, seaports became more significant for trade, and the central geographic location was no longer an advantage. As a result, penetration of customs and ideas from outside Southeast Asia was slower in Laos than in its neighbors with long coastlines, especially China, Thailand, and Vietnam. French interest in Vietnam, for example, began long before any interest in Laos, and even after the incorporation of Laos into French Indochina, French investment in education was much less in Laos than in Vietnam (see Chap. 1 , Sect. 1.2.2 ).