The few secondary schools the French built were in the provincial capitals and serviced only students with enough French to study in that language. In 1975 there were only 2,800 secondary school students, the vast majority of whom were concentrated in Vientiane. To have primary schools at village level you need to train the secondary school students who can teach in them. But the majority of would-be teachers live a day's walk away from the training schools. Most of these training schools operate double shifts because there are too few teachers and classrooms to cope with the enormous influx of students.
Few students have textbooks.
Most lack even paper and pencils, as such items must be imported at great cost to a Government with severely limited access to foreign exchange. Even the black paint for the ubiquitous blackboards that dominate every Lao classroom must come from Bangkok, Hong Kong, Moscow or Hanoi. And they end with the head teacher asking if I could help him get cement, roofing, wood, and nails to build wooden classrooms, a kitchen, a cafeteria and dormitories. And then , he added, perhaps you could send notebooks, pencils, a volleyball, mosquito nets, sweaters and blankets. The provincial government provides each student with 15 kilos of rice per month.