(KPL) UNICEF, in partnership with the Lao National Radio and support from the European Union, recently hosted a media workshop in Luang Namtha with young people to empowering youth voices in promoting education from Jul 12-13.

The workshop brought together over 20 members of the Lao Youth Media network from Luang Namtha, Bokeo, and Oudomxay provinces to explore how youth can leverage media to advocate for child rights, focusing especially on issues like education and digital learning.

Director of the Information, Culture, and Tourism Department of Luang Namtha Province, Mr. Sisouphanh Thampanya,  highlighted the Lao Youth Media initiative’s role in building media skills among young people to help foster community dialogue on important issues related to youth today.

"The Lao Youth Media initiative is helping us build the media skills of young people to provide important information on a wide range of issues to their peers and communities,” said Mr. Sisouphanh Thampanya during his opening remarks at the workshop.

The Lao Youth Media is a flagship initiative led by the Lao National Radio in partnership with UNICEF. Since its inception in 2004, it has continued to help foster the exchange of diverse perspectives and collaboration with young people to address the diverse needs and challenges faced by youth across the nation today.

Communication Specialist from UNICEF Lao PDR, Mr. Tabongphet Phouthavong, further emphasized the significance of youth participation for Lao PDR’s future. "Children have the right to participate in decision-making on matters that have a direct impact on their lives. Thus, it is important that we provide a platform where they can share their perspectives on a range of issues, especially on education,” he remarked.

Mr. Tabongphet Phouthavong further underscored the relevance of digital learning today. He highlighted the success of Khang Panya Lao, Lao PDR’s first digital teaching-learning platform developed by the Ministry of Education and Sports with support from the European Union and UNICEF.

The platform played a critical role in ensuring continued education during the COVID-19 pandemic and now has registered 100,000 users. The platform offers educational resources accessible through various devices, including for users with limited internet access. The platform also contains inclusive learning materials adapted for the needs of children with disability as well, including videos with sign-language subtitles among others.

Briefing on Khang Panya Lao to youth media teams, Mr Lamphone Daophonechaleun from Education Department of Luang Namtha Province said the platform centralizes teaching materials to support teachers’ professional development, along with textbooks, interactive quizzes, videos, and learning materials for students. “It can be accessed from a computer or downloaded as an application with a phone, tablet, or any other mobile device. This allows access to people with limited internet connection – a reality that affects most impoverished provinces in Laos.”

He continues that with this platform, students have been able to actively participate in their learning processes through interactive teaching tools. What children like the most about this application is that they can do experiments in physics and chemistry courses, and it is like a game to have fun and learn at the same time.

He also highlighted that to make sure content is accessible to everyone, including children with disabilities, the platform includes a category for inclusive education materials for students and teachers. This category will contain Lao sign language courses and inclusive education manuals. Some of the content is also sub-titled and includes content with audio files, including Read Aloud Storybooks.

Head of Programme Section of the Lao National Radio, Responsible for youth media activities, Mr Khamphone SayOudom, said that he is very impressed to learn about the digital programme “Khang Panya Lao”. This is because it contains teaching methods, as such there are various teaching manuals from primary to secondary school, teaching materials and equipment needed for experiments are available. There are a lot of tools to support teaching using APP of Khang Panya Lao.

“This platform is an excellent resource for youth media to produce radio programme in their province as well as promote education through youth media page and other social media tools” said Mr khamphone SaiOudom.

As a result of the workshop, the youth participants honed their skills in producing content for various media, from social media to radio. Lao Youth Media members from Luang Namtha, Bokeo, and Oudomxay provinces are now actively using their channels to promote content related to Khang Panya Lao.

KPL