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Cambodia's classrooms are generally under-resourced. Cabinets or shelves -- if they exist -- are empty, walls are bare, and in most cases there are insufficient textbooks to accommodate all students.
In a Valuing Teachers survey conducted by Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and NGO Education Partnership (NEP), 76% of responding teachers found the lack of teaching and learning materials an obstacle to their work, and 63% named this as a de-motivating factor (http://www.schools4cambodia.org/files/folders/schooldevelopment/entry282.aspx). There's no doubt that a lack of resources impacts the quality of education received by students.
Under SCC's Primary School Development Programme, we partner with communities to provide much-needed materials to teachers and students. At the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, teachers at both Phuom Stung and Wat Mon Thyean Primary Schools took inventory of their schools' resources and identified their needs. Based on the assessments, SCC has been working with school support committees to coordinate the provision of the much-needed, one-off resources to each school. Organized by the school support committees, the communities served by Phoum Stung and Wat Mon Thyean have made direct contributions to resourcing their schools. For example, the Phuom Stung teachers have hand-made some posters and flashcards, and community members pulled together US$25 to contribute to the purchase of other supplies. Considering a typical teacher’s salary is between US$30 and $60 per month, this is quite a bit of money for a community to contribute. Wat Mon Thyean also raised an impressive US$25, and the school donated an extra US$5 to the project. It is encouraging to see the communities and schools take such an active interest in the education of their children!
With SCC's contribution of an additional US$1,245, a range of materials - including globes, posters, maps, protractors, and photocopied textbooks - were purchased for the schools. Last week, SCC Programme Officer, Jay, made trips to Phoum Stung and Wat Mon Thyean to deliver the resources. Excitement was at record levels! For school support committee members, especially, it was the first time they had seen such materials. The resources were checked for quality and quantity by the committees, and then handed over to teachers to organize and put to good use. The school support committee and SCC will work together to monitor the schools' use of the new materials.
We hope that with this contribution of resources, teachers will be in a better position to provide quality education to their students.
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