Cambodia:
Rural Communities Take Charge of Children's Education
reprinted with permission from World
Education (www.worlded.org)
For more information or to make a donation, please contact
Amy Medici at amedici@worlded.org
____________________________________________________
"Authorities, communities, and teachers now work together
to improve education. Together we identify out-of-school children
and help them to find ways to go back to school. The support
has really helped my commune and we are proud of the positive
changes we made."
Houl Seourn, chief of the Commune Council of Boeung Char
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World Education and
its partners serve over 60,000 children in 165 schools
in 3 provinces. Scholarships have been provided to over
6,000 primary and secondary school students. |
In the remote regions of Cambodia, some of
the country's poorest communities have limited access to schools,
teachers, or educational support. Although the right to a basic
education for every child is guaranteed in the Cambodian constitution,
children in remote areas have not had access to government services.
There are only a few complete school buildings in these areas,
and it is difficult to recruit teachers to villages with poor
living and working conditions. Few families can afford to purchase
educational supplies and uniforms and parents often prefer to
keep children, especially girls, at home to contribute to household
income. These issues particularly hurt children who are left
at the margins of Cambodian society—those who are from
ethnic minority groups, impoverished, affected by HIV and AIDS,
or disabled.
The children of Chour Krang, a village in the
northeast province of Kratie, were affected by many of these
issues. Before World Education began implementing the Education
Support to Children in Under-served Populations (ESCUP) Project
with its local partners, children from the Steang minority group
had to walk almost three miles a day through dense bush and
forest to reach their school. The youngest were often kept at
home because of the distance, delaying their education.
The children of Beoung Char, an island located
in the Mekong River along the border of Kratie Province, faced
a similar problem. Families were spread out over the 12-mile
island, which lacked proper roads and infrastructure. According
to Houl Seourn, chief of the Commune Council of Boeung Char,
"many of the children lived too far away from the three
schools on the island, and villagers were concerned about the
limited education opportunities for their children."
Through ESCUP, part of the EQUIP1 partnership
led by American Institutes for Research, World Education and
its partners work with underserved communities to improve access
to education. In Kratie Province, World Education and its partners
consulted with school committees, village leaders, and parents
in communities like Chour Krang and Beoung Char, to identify
the different obstacles to education. With ESCUP support, community
members worked together to devise solutions and take action.
In Chour Krang, community members chose to build a temporary
school building closer to the village. ESCUP provided the funds
for materials, while community members provided labor.
By working together, the community is now more
involved and engaged in keeping children in school. Today, more
than 113 children are now attending the school and children
are able to enroll at age six, instead of waiting until they
can manage the long walk to school. Non Phorn, the deputy village
chief of Chour Krang, noted that even though there are limited
resources in the village, he is "glad that the local people
made contributing labor to the new village school a priority
because education is a precious thing for all the children in
the village."
In Beoung Char, the community came together
to construct several small schools in areas far from the government
schools. However, the community could not afford to hire teachers
and it was difficult to recruit trained teachers to work in
their remote area. After consultation, ESCUP worked with the
community to identify local community members and train them
as teachers. Houl Seourn describes the benefits of training
local teachers: "this has improved the education services
tremendously, especially because the teachers come from our
own community and understand the children and their situations
well. The support from ESCUP facilitated better collaboration
between the communities, schools, and the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports (MoEYS), and strengthened the role of the community
in education."
For more information or to make a donation,
please contact Amy Medici at amedici@worlded.org
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Children from
Chour Krang stand outside their new school building during
construction. |
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