Sompanya School ໂຮງຮຽນສົມປັນຍາ Sompanya is a private and not-for-profit school. Sompanya in Lao means “according to one’s own potential wisdom”.
Its main goal is to take children out of conventional schooling environment and give them in real education, where there is a balance between learning and teaching. It is a human rights approach to bringing about wisdom and best quality of humanity. It is a prevention and reduction of human suffering,( which we often called poverty) and to move towards sustainable living. It is the realization of
wisdom, that one will practice sustainable living. The founder believes that genetically every child is born with some types of innate intelligences . They can be grouped in three different types: physical, emotional, and intellectual intelligences. Or one can simple refer to them as: The Hands, Heart, and Head. Sompaya, thus, is a holistic approach to teaching and learning where Heart, Head, and Hands are developed in synchronism as the child grows and develops, in order to reach that full potential of wisdom. The school is designed to be a community of discovers, learners and doers. It aims to be a catalyst and to coach interested teachers and parents throughout the Laos. Here, young students will learn to program their own learning, to help each others, and to help communities. It uses the community’s environmental and social contexts as real life laboratory to experiment and learn from. The learning is child-centred, brain based, and activity based. The themes and activities are selected according to the interests of the students. Teachers play the role of managers and facilitators of learning. Sompanya maintains a low teacher to students ratio. It starts with kindergartens, primary school level, secondary school level, and will eventually develop into high school level. Sompanya is one of the six sisters of Learning Centres, developed by PADETC (The Participatory Development Training Centre). Each of these centres is focusing on specific key areas of sustainable living and development. Students from Sompanya will have first hand experiences in these centres. The results will be total education. The minimum result from these learning experiences will reduce or prevernt further sufferings (physically, emotionally, and intellectually). The average result will be that they have strong body, heart, and mind. Only with the free intelligences in balance, they will reach the state of wisdom, the highest expected outcome of their learning.
09/04/2026