As Christmas was celebrated in the UK and other parts of the world, the Wat Mon Thyean School Support Committee convened to create a plan to tackle one of their community's most pressing education-related problems, parents' little value on education.

In a discussion facilitated by SCC, the school director, assistant village chief and four community members outlined the activities, and associated owners, resources, and success criteria, that they will undertake in 2009 to confront this issue.

In January and February, the assistant village chief will organize a series of meetings with parents that will serve to promote education awareness. School support committee members will do most of the talking, but by their request, SCC will also participate, promoting the social benefit of education.

To complement the village meetings, the Wat Mon Thyean School Support Committee also plans to conduct monthly home visits to parents of students who attend irregularly, perform poorly, or are at-risk of dropping out. Because parents are usually hard at work in the fields during the day, School Support Committee members will give up one evening per month to make the rounds, talking to parents about their students' problems and the importance of education.

The School Support Committee also decided that parents are likely to value education if they see their children learning skills that are relevant to life in their village. As vegetable farming is important to the livelihoods of the people in the Wat Mon Thyean community, two members of the School Support Committee will oversee the initiation of a life skills class that teaches students to grow vegetables. Once students are trained, they will be provided with seeds to start their own vegetable gardens at home.

The School Support Committee is extremely proud of their plan and eager to start implementation. Stay tuned to the SCC news blog to hear about their progress!

The Wat Mon Thyean School Support Committee and Jay, SCC's Programme Officer, proudly display a Gantt chart detailing their plan: