Established in 1982, the National Arts Teacher Training School is the only teacher training school in Laos dedicated to the teaching of arts subjects. Run by the Ministry of Education, it trains primary and secondary school teachers in the two areas of (i) fine art and (ii) music and dance. The School has 25 staff members (including 19 teachers) and an annual intake of around 70 students aged 16-17 years who have graduated from lower secondary school. Since there is an agreed annual quota of at least five students from each province, the largest number of students comes from the provinces. The three-year curriculum involves specialisation in either (i) fine arts (decorative arts, portrait, landscape, Lao traditional drawing, perspective, physical biology, colour theory, history of art, clay modelling) or (ii) music and dance (international music theory, solfa theory and dictation, international musical instruments - guitar, piano, accordion, Lao musical instruments - khene, ranat, so, singing, Lao traditional dance, history of music, music teaching methodology) and leads to a certificate. After graduating at the age of 19-20 years, most of the students return to their home provinces to teach in local schools. Since most provincial schools do not have specialised arts teachers, they are always in great demand. However, while at the present time graduates are only qualified to teach one subject, in practice they are often expected to teach both fine arts and music. For this reason the Ministry of Education is considering a change to the programme to require all students to study both areas, while still specialising in one. There are also plans to upgrade the school to a college, requiring all entrants to have graduated from upper secondary school before starting the course, however before this can happen there is an urgent need to upgrade the skills of teaching staff. Most of the 19 teachers are graduates of the school - there is just one graduate of the National Faculty of Fine Arts, one graduate of the National School of Music and Dance and one overseas graduate (in fine arts from a school in Việt Nam). The teaching methodology used at the school is based on a Russian pedagogic textbook translated by the Director and is not specific to arts subjects. Facilities are also sub-standard - JICA recently funded the construction of a new women's dormitory, but most other buildings are in a very poor state of repair and teaching equipment such as musical instruments and fine art equipment are in short supply. Two Japanese volunteers have been working temporarily with the school but the language barrier has created considerable problems. The National Arts Teacher Training School is urgently seeking international assistance to upgrade the skills of its teaching staff, develop its curriculum, build proper teaching facilities and purchase essential teaching equipment and materials.