Thongsy Vatthanongsa is an assistant manager for curriculum development coordination on an education program in Lao PDR.
Thongsy is Hmong and can speak Lao, Thai and English. He was born in and is currently located in Xieng Khouang province, Lao PDR. Through the Basic Education Quality and Access in Lao PDR (BEQUAL) program, he supports education reform on behalf of the Laos Government and with support from the Australian Government. In this interview, Thongsy discusses his career path, what he’s learned and why he loves his work.
Can you tell us about your career to date?
I’ve worked with Tetra Tech since 2017. I work closely with the team, supporting the technical and coordination managers, to develop and deliver curriculum activities. This includes supporting the Ministry of Education and Sport (MoES) officers and Research Institute Education and Science (RIES) staff to manage and implement national primary curriculum materials.
With the BEQUAL program, I facilitated planning and consulting between international specialists, advisors, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and RIES staff. I also support monitoring the implementation of the new curriculum and conducting the monitoring of the financial grants to provinces and district education offices.
This includes working on the Spoken Lao Pilot program, which is focused on providing support for children who start school with little understanding of Lao language.
I’ve also worked with the Quality of Life Association to support and help unexplored ordnance survivors and people with disabilities. In 2016 I volunteered with Give Children a Choice where I gained experience on education development. Prior to this, I worked as a tour guide, where I met people from different countries and had the opportunity to strengthen my English speaking.
Why did you choose to work with Tetra Tech?
Tetra Tech offers good working conditions, career progression and work that I enjoy. In this role, I work with teams from the MOE, RIES, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and development partners from central, regional and community levels.
What do you love about working with Tetra Tech?
Working to improve education and communities’ access to better education and reforming the national primary curriculum through developing active learning approach, teacher development training, assessment strategies and approaches to monitoring and evaluating.
Helping primary school children to be more engaged in school and designing a Spoken Lao Program to help children learn Lao as a second language helps. This helps my community access better education that is aligned with ASEAN countries.
