The New School Year Begins!
From 9 to 11 pm last night, I sat in my Colorado office talking to our school director, Ngim So Bun, in Cambodia, using the voice over internet software, Skype. Our two hour conversation was completely free. I hope that Skype will one-day become the tool to facilitate a web based English tutoring program at our school. But this is a first world dream. In seven years of sponsoring a school in Cambodia, I have learned one firm lesson - listen to the people I am serving. So I listened, and So Bun talked, and my dreams of a computer lab deflated. Right now cooking fuel is more important than computers.
We begin the 2007-2008 school year with 435 students enrolled, and another 73 who have not shown up yet. Why? Because their parents cannot afford to send them. They either live too far away or they need their children to work. They work chopping down trees to sell cooking fuel to Phnom Penh. We have 129 students enrolled for 1st class and 25 enrolled for 6th class. Fourteen have enrolled to attend the secondary school 4km down the road. I’ll be surprised if half of them finish the first year. Our student enrollment figures confirm that 80% of rural children do not complete a primary education, in keeping with the UNESCO statistics for the region.
Cambodia is much like the United States was 100 years ago, when most of the economy was agricultural, and most people did not attend school past 6th grade. I’ve learned to lower the bar of my first world expectations. Building the foundation of an educated society begins with universal primary education. When you put the opportunity for education in the hands of a few, you seat power in the hands of a few. And that is exactly the urban-rural dynamic that fueled the disastrous communist revolution known as the Khmer Rouge in the first place. Educating the rural poor is our priority.
For a sobering reminder of why our work is necessary, take a look at the status of our 6 Khmer teachers who are provided by the ministry of education. Five return for another year with the addition of a second female teacher, Cheang Van Neath, newly graduated from the teacher training center. The salary provided by the government for our experienced teachers is $38 per month, the school director receives $40, and the new teacher receives $15. If Cheang Van Neath can survive on that for a year, she will receive a $250 supplement from the government at the completion of her 10 month contract. The $25 per month food stipend we send to each teacher helps to curb the national trend of teacher absenteeism and collection of “informal payments” from students, as described in the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia on Bookrags.com
“The country’s teachers, who are grossly underpaid, have resorted to charging their students unofficial fees. Many are spending less time in the classroom as they seek additional employment elsewhere. Almost 20 percent of students in urban areas, and 26 percent in rural areas, have repeated at least one grade at school. From every one thousand students who begin primary school, only twenty-seven will graduate from upper secondary school. Girls, students from remote areas, and the poor are all grossly underrepresented in education statistics. With these significant problems as a backdrop, and the school-age population continuing to grow, the Cambodian government still denies the education sector the funding it needs to realize its important role in Cambodian society.”
Our 83-year old music teacher, Em Luot, suffered a setback with his rheumatism in September, exacerbated by the school director’s decision to withhold his salary since July. Why? Because he needed to pay for the new gate to keep the cows out of the schoolyard - they were eating the flowers!
Routine operating expenses and development activities are supposed to be funded by the “priority action program. ” But the government was more than 4 months behind on delivering “pap” funds, the cows were despoiling the school yard, and Em Luot’s salary was the only cash available .
We told director So Bun not to borrow teacher’s salaries to fill the shortcomings of his government - that’s what we’re for! We need Em Luot healthy and working to prepare his music students for their big debut in the marketplace to deliver our conservation message and demonstrate cooking fuel briquettes.
Imagine if your child’s school was subject to such incalculable whims. Would you place much faith in education?
As our Abundant Forest Life Skills Training Center develops, we hope it will empower the Chrauk Tiek community with both the income and local control to steer their own educational destiny. We want every child to complete a primary education and for teachers to earn a salary they can live on.
Stay Tuned…
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