First Day Of School
Chrauk Tiek Village, Cambodia
So much has transpired over the past 3 days, it’s hard to know where to begin. I want to introduce you to the families of Chrauk Tiek village so I’ll keep the words to a minimum and let the images do the talking.
The first day of school A LOT of kids show up. Proud parents arrive to register their kids and to meet me. It’s a bit chaotic, as no one has yet divided the kids by grade and skill level, a task, which is anything but straightforward. The age range per class can be 3-5 years, depending on how old the child was when they started and how often they miss class and thus do not pass. As usual we have nearly one hundred register for grades 1, 2 and 3, and each year thereafter decreases by 25%. There are 24 registered for 6th grade, 18 attending secondary school and none attending high school. The drop out rate has decreased by only a handful.
I asked the school director, Nhim So Bun to arrange a meeting with the parents. I want to get their feedback about what they want the school to provide for their community. It is the first step toward engaging the community, but this will prove to be a tedious process. I have a list of 4 questions for each family. What is your opinion of the quality of the school? What is your opinion of the quality of the teachers? What would you like your children to be learning at school? What is the biggest reason children do not attend school.
I ask who can read and write. Two people raise their hands—a mental note, adult literacy class needed. I have 8 literate people with me from the city that have come to observe the briquette project, including Sovann, Sam Sundoeun and our driver Bun Thon, all of whom are engaged to help the parents of Chrauk Tiek write down their answers. It is difficult to enlist the help of literate students who are too shy to display their knowledge. Thus this exercise takes more than two hours.
But you find out amazing things this way. From the 38 surveys I collected, it is clear that no one has ever asked their opinion before. If empowerment begins with participation, we have only just begun to take our first baby steps. Here is a sampling.
From Kim Vorn, age 21, mother of 1 and 3 orphan siblings. Both parents died when she was 13 years old, she has taken care of her 3 younger siblings ever since. She has never been to school.
“We very happy that we got the closer school to my house and my sibling can attend school without payment money. We hope new teachers pay attention to teach all their best. We want to follow up all students and find out why some students always make up and complain if teacher absent without asking for days off first. Sometimes they came school but teacher always absent, sometimes they absent to much and afraid to come to school. Low income families has not enough money to buy school supply. But we will try to tell and explain from our best about important to do a lot in school. We want our children to be English Teachers.”
From Tau Soka, age 25, mother of 4.
“Teacher does not pay attention on his teaching. The children doesn’t understand the lesson well because the teachers doesn’t explain enough, it waste time for their study. Sometimes the children have fever and cannot go to school. Sometimes live far away cannot get to school. If they have the way and enough money or medicine when they are sick I think that the children can study all together. I request you encourage the teacher to explain to them and to teach them some morality.”
From Khim Savon, farmer, father of 5, the oldest has finished secondary school grade 9.
“He very happy and want his children to continue their study and want to have a higher class. When my children finish their secondary school. How can they continue to high school?”
From Kong Savin, age 31, father of 1 and 1 orphaned niece.
“I want all the teachers to teach from their heart and to strengthen the discipline. Request you support the study materials, student uniform to the poor student to make a beauty for their school. Very happy that we support the Chrauk Tiek school in development in the field of education and general knowledge. I am a father and try to take the children to school on time in order to respect the school rule.”
The theme of the poor showing by teachers is consistent. Sam Sundoeun spoke to the families as well, telling them that there are many schools near Phnom Penh that do not have what this school has, makes me wonder what happens at those schools.
Local control is important and I am a little miffed that our teacher attendance bonus was not administered properly to avoid this kind of problem. Apparently, the school director had no support from his community to deal with the teacher problems, he has now fired the 3 teachers causing the problem and we have 3 new Khmer teachers and a new English teacher. We developed a system of checks and balances for the local community to assure that the teacher attendance policy is enforced by THEM.
Tune in next time to hear about the teacher meeting and my admonishment to the new recruits.
We traveled past many schools on the way out here, none with the support that this school has, which strengthens my belief in the mission of Sustainable Schools International: to empower Cambodian communities to sustain schools through economic development.
