The Need for Local Control
Chrauk Tiek Village, Cambodia.
Getting to the bottom of the matter with the teacher attendance issue proved my point of the need for local control. It seems that our old English Teacher, who was provided by American Assistance for Cambodia and paid by them through donation from us, became increasingly hostile to following the school director’s rule. Two other Khmer teachers followed his bad behavior. They became more interested in partying than teaching, drinking palm wine and inviting friends to stay in the teacher residence. The school director was powerless to stop them without a mechanism to engage community support. Oversight by higher educational and government officials is non-existent. The last straw came when school director, Nhim Sobun, caught the English teacher showing pornography to the two Khmer teachers on the school computer. Sobun went to AAfC and fired him by himself. The entire episode enforces my belief in the need for a local community-based school supporting committee that is empowered with the authority to oversee the school and the money to enforce that oversight.
The issue resolved, however, because we have 2 new Khmer teachers and a new English teacher. We held a group meeting and hashed out a Teacher Attendance policy. A $30 attendance bonus, to supplement the $30 government salary, is paid only if the teacher attends to the class everyday, on time. For every day they are late $1 is deducted, if more than five deductions, they loose the whole month bonus and if they loose the whole month bonus more than one time, they will loose it for the rest of the year. The attendance record will be kept by the School Director and filed in writing to the school supporting committee every month. A majority vote must approve the record and three committee members sign for release of funds. Each teacher must sign a receipt of funds and both the signed attendance record and the receipts must be submitted to us within 30 days. Ridiculous, I know, but this is exactly the kind of infrastructure and community control mechanisms (dare I say, bureaucracy) that Cambodia doesn’t have.
Between the low pay and the lack of a school board, it’s no wonder there are so many new school buildings in this country with no teachers in them! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, to everyone who wants to donate a school to Cambodia – “a building does not make a school, people do”. Raising money for bricks and mortar is easy, raising money to build the human capacity to sustain the school is harder for donors to understand. People are messy, people make mistakes, people have relationship dynamics to deal with, and in Cambodia people have a culture of corruption to overcome. Making them accountable to each other is the first step. This is a perfect example of a keynote speech I give in the US, “The Relationship Matters as Much as the Money.” The work of Sustainable Schools International starts with the formation of a school supporting committee.
We go have a meeting with the School Committee chairman, Vong Sovong, the truck driver we have been trying to get involved with helping the briquette project for almost a year.
Sitting on the floor mat with he and is wife, under the light of multi-colored Christmas lights blinking above the spirit house, we find a solution. Turns out that Vong Sovong’s wife won’t let him help with the school because she is mad that the school director does not tell him when he receives some funds from us or some donation from someone else. I am floored. These two men live less than a kilometer apart and I have to come from the United States, take one by the hand and walk him down the road to talk with each other and resolve the problem. They have a serious communication problem, a legacy of the Khmer Rouge era that destroyed any semblance of community solidarity in Cambodia.
I share my opinion to form a school supporting committee with 12 members and set up a system of checks and balances. Everyone agrees and we discuss criteria for the committee: one representative from parents in each village, one teacher, one briquette worker, the school director, a treasurer, secretary, the chairman and a requirement that at least 5 members must be women.
Then suddenly, the briquette production manager doesn’t want everyone else to know that he is paid, afraid that they will be jealous. I ask him why not, he works full time and if he volunteers to come to the committee meeting for 2 hours a month it is the same as everyone else.
I give them my opinion about the importance of open and honest communication. This discussion leads to the establishment of a list of core values for the committee to commit to, they are: Communicate Openly and Honestly, Trust Each Other, Respect Each Other, everyone must Participate, and Solidarity. I ask them to add 5 more to the list at their first meeting where they will also need to approve the teacher attendance policy. We worked on how to establish a monthly meeting time and a quorum, how to hold an open discussion and take a fair vote. If they can establish an effective committee, they can establish a bank account and manage donated funds all together, whether they come from the social fund, local community donations, economic development projects or me. They will need to have this mechanism in place for any economic development project in the future that will support the school.
As a result Vong Sovong agreed to work for the production team 8 days per month, two days collecting raw material and two days transporting briquettes, every other week. This program is desperately in need of a 
truck to transport the goods to market. We need to raise $10,000. This truck will be used to help market the Smart Choice Fuel briquettes and take the program to other schools in provinces where there are no trees and people must cook with cow dung. If anyone would like to contribute click here.
This experience helps us shape our understanding of how to work effectively with another school community. I have several other schools to visit that have expressed interest in our project. The mission of Sustainable Schools International must begin with the establishment of an effective and functional school supporting committee based on the core values above. It may prove to be a tall order.
Today’s blog is a perfect example of a keynote speech Kari Grady Grossman gives in the US, “The Relationship Matters as Much as the Money.” Are you or your group is interested in social justice, history, education, global awareness or activism? To learn how to book Kari for your next event click here.
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