Samthong college
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| Samthong college | |
|---|---|
 View of Samgthong College from Sam Thong Airport on the northeast side of the cit Samthong college campus | |
| Location | |
Samthong or Sam Thong , | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public school |
| Established | 1966 |
| Founder | General Vang Pao and the Xiangkhouang province leaders |
| Status | Closed |
| Closed | 1975 |
| Principal | Khamleck 1966 - 1969, Toufue Vang 1969 - 1971, Maxime Lesage 1971 - 1974, Ly Chao 1974/75 |
| Grades | 6th - 9th |
| Sports | Soccer and volleyball |
Samthong college[1][2](college using here is a French word which means middle high school) was a middle high school located in Xiangkhouang Province, Laos. It was founded in 1966 in the city of Samthong[3][4][5]during the Vietnam War of 1961-1975. The school was located about one kilometer from downtown Samthong. Behind the trees where the school was, there was a soccer field and then the uninhabited land. There was no house, only vegetation and grasses. A few houses were about half a kilometer or more away. The only main road the school had access to was the one that came from Samthong airport and then went to Long Tieng town. Between the city center which used to be the city market and Samthong Airport, there are limestone rocks which lie in the middle between the two.
History[edit]
Samthong College[6] was founded 1966. Due to many factors such as financial problems and the location of high schools in major cities such as Vientiane city and Luang Prabang which were far from home, then affected students' round trips from Xiangkhouang province , especially in rural and mountainous areas, General Vang Pao and other leaders as Assistant Inspector General of Xiangkhouang province's Primary Schools, Bounthalansy Douangsavanh in Xiangkhouang province were trying to find solutions with funds from USAID [7] to build schools there, in Xiangkhouang province , such as Samthong college to improve and promote Lao-Hmong children to become more educated. Before, only people who lived in cities and had money, had the chance to get a better education and professional career, not others living in the mountain areas. Samthong college was the first school and the highest one in history in Xiangkhouang Province, Laos. The first principal was Prof. Khamleck, then followed by Toufue Vang in September 1969 before school moving to Vientiane in Fa Ngum High School at Sokpaluang.
Samthong college was ranked the highest school in Xiangkhouang province, due to its teaching classes of 6th B, 6th A, 5th, 4th, and 3th (grade 9th). The class of 3th (grade 9th) was in Muangcha, Muang Xaisomboun province in 1974/75. Besides Samthong college, the other schools of the Xiangkhouang province were almost all primary schools.
From the class 6th (grade 6th), teaching was all in French language.[8] No matter what is mathematics, geography, history and others, the national education system of Laos was the same as the French education in France. The reason was because education didn't existing yet in Laos before the protectorate of France. The opening of schools started only from the French colonization, after the first Frenchman, Parvie Auguste, arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, in 1893.[9]
In September 1966, when the Middle High School opened its doors, there were about twenty students at the start of the 1966/67 school year. It was the beginning of the class of 6th B. The following year, there were two classes, one of which was the class of 6th B, then the other was the class of 6th A. Each year, the school added a higher class to go to 3th (grade 9th). As the students steadily increased every year due to the high number of applications, only students who passed the entrance exam were admitted. Then only the best grades were accepted. It was the policy of the school and also of secondary education in Laos at that time.
In 1970, war, Campaign 139, poisoned the city of Samthong, forcing Samthong college to move to Vientiane to set up its classrooms in the buildings of Fa Ngum High School in Sokpaluang. The installation came from the Ministry of National Education of Laos. It should be for only a few months, but it lasted for years. 1970 was the year the school moved to Vientiane. For that year, there were classes from 6th B - up to 4th.
Few months later in Vientiane, as city of Samthong and also city of Long Tieng, a nearby town which was the secret military base of the CIA located 12 miles from Samthong, continued to fall into enemy hands, Toufue Vang who was the Principal at the time, resigned his position then went to join the army of General Vang Pao. It was then that he was replaced by Maxime Lesage, a Frenchman of Puducherry (union territory) origin, as principal starting 1971/72 school year.
Under the direction of Maxime Lesage who was the principal at the school years from 1971 - 1974, there was a huge progression in the teaching of all subjects and also in the results of the students. Many students passed entrance exams to any school. Some went to enroll in Dongdok University and the others to Lycee de Vientiane. Today, the Dongdok universty does not exist anymore, it has become National University of Laos.
In 1974, when the war ended, the country came under the political supervision of the Democratic People's Republic of Laos, Samthong college returned to the province of Muang Xaisomboun province, which was the former province of Xiangkhouang before, where Maxime Lesage is replaced by Pr Ly Chao as the new Principal of Samthong college.
In May 1975, a year after the school moved to (Muangcha) Muang Xaisomboun province from Fa Ngum High School in Sokpaluang, Vientiane, there was a political disaster in Laos. These were problems between the population and the policy of the Democratic People's Republic of Laos. Starting there, Samthong college's students fled their home with their families to join refugee camps in Thailand to claim political asylum. From there, Samthong college has since been closed.
Thanks Samthong college and a part of the Vietnam War, many students of this school left villages and fled the country of Laos to immigrate to western countries such as United States for the most part, and then to France, Australia, and Canada. Today, some of these students have become medical doctors, engineers, computer science, accountants afterwards in the United States, France, Australia, and Laos.
Demographics[edit]
Academics[edit]
Throughout the years 1966 - 1975, Samthong college provided the opportunity to teach and guide some of the brilliant students to achieve their dream. Some of them became PHD and some became family doctors , computer scientists, engineers and more in the United States. France, and Laos.
Athletics[edit]
Soccer (football)[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Sam Thong or Samthong college".
- ↑ "Samthong INS".
- ↑ Benson, Frederic C. "Sam Thong - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries".
- ↑ "Evacuation Started At Key Laotian Base". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Sam Thong, Key Laotian Town, Reported Retaken From Enemy". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Samthong college".
- ↑ "u.s. Economic Assistance to the Royal Lao Government 1962 - 1972" (PDF).
- ↑ "French colonial education policy and practice".
- ↑ "French colonialism sponsored and restructured Lao education and Lao Buddhism".
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