In Feburary and March, SCC, in collaboration with the Siem Reap Provincial Teacher Training College (PTTC), provided training on teaching methodology and classroom management to over 40 primary school teachers. In late May and early June, teachers at Wat Mon Thyean and Phoum Stung Primary Schools had the opportunity to showcase what they learned. SCC's Program Officer, Jay, joined the training facilitator from PTTC, in unannounced visits to the schools to observe teachers' classes and provide feedback and further one-on-one coaching.

Some teachers showed that they were putting their new knowledge to practice. A teacher at Phoum Stung, for example, had learned to use creativity to overcome challenges associated with under-resourced classrooms. She and students had collected leaves which they used as counters to practice simple addition and subtraction. Teachers also showed improved interactions with students by moving throughout the classroom, instead of standing in one place or sitting at their desks at the front of the rooms.

Learning to be an effective teacher is an ongoing process. The PTTC facilitator offered coaching on the use of questions to further engage students, the introduction of new subject material in a way that relates to concepts that students already understand, and improved communication with and reporting to the school director.

School directors played an important role in observing the teachers, too, as they were trained to conduct evaluations and give feedback their staff, something that very rarely happens at the average school!

Since Feburary 2009, the School Support Committee at Phoum Stung Primary School and SCC have been working with Our Books, a non-profit dedicated to the development of comic art in Cambodia, to design a series of images that promote the value of education.  

The images, shown below, tell the story of children from a poor family whose parents attend a meeting at the local primary school and are encouraged to enrol their children in school.  The decision to send their children to school, along with encouragement to study hard at home, results in the students' completing secondary school, finding jobs and securing better lives for themselves and their family. 

Now that the images are complete, the production of two 2 x 2.5 meter signboards, which will display the images, are underway.  Ultimately, the signboards will be installed in high-traffic areas of the community and unveiled in a community meeting.  Stay tuned for further updates! 

On Thursday, 28 May, 70 community members gathered in the new Wat Mon Thyean classrooms for the second of two meetings organized by the School Support Committee to improve school-community communication and to promote the value of education.

Followed by a greeting from the School Director, the Wat Mon Thyean teachers presented some of their greatest challenges, including parents' pulling their children out of class to attend weddings and other village festivals. Teachers explained that repeatedly missing days of class can hinder children's learning and encouraged parents to send their students to school everyday.

A member of the School Support Committee showed the resources that were purchased using contributions from the community and SCC and delivered to the school several months ago. The new materials – including textbooks, posters, globes, rulers, scissors, etc – are helping to address the school's lack of teaching and learning resources.

The School Support Committee also discussed the recently-initiated agriculture classes for grade 3-6 students and the morning breakfasts supported by the World Food Program.

By far, the biggest highlight of the meeting was the attendance of 10 parents from a migrant community nearby the school. Students living in this neighborhood stay for only six months of the year, after which they follow their parents to Kampong Cham where they get seasonal work. The moving back and forth no doubt has serious implications for the students' education. Until now, the school had very limited communication with these migrant workers, so their representation at the school meeting was considered a big success.

Parents start to gather for the meeting.  Note the well-docorated walls!  Some are teaching resources handmade by teachers, while others are materials supported by SCC and the Wat Mon Thyean community.

School Support Committee members and teachers assemble for the meeting:

A crowded classroom!  The School Support Committee was successful in getting 20 more parents at this meeting than the first, in Feburary.

In the final phase of SCC's School Adoption Programme, teacher sponsorship was phased out in February 2009 and replaced by SCC's Primary School Development Programme (PSDP). This is a more sustainable approach to improving access to and quality of education and is based on involving community members in the running their schools and the education of their children. We recognize that each community has unique needs, so the support provided will also vary, but may include teacher and director training, the provision of teaching and learning resources, classroom construction, and support for education awareness events.

Each of SCC's formerly 'adopted' schools was given the opportunity of continued PSDP support from SCC which included training and resources, but not the payment of teacher salary supplements. This is a big policy change and subsequent discussions with each school and community have resulted in mutually agreed and local decisions about how best to adapt and work the SCC into the future.

The Phoum Stung Primary School staff and community members have embraced the PSDP and are working toward implementation of their 2009 development plan. They have held village meetings promoting education awareness to parents, raised $25 to contribute to over $500 worth of new teaching and learning resources that are now in use, and designed a billboard that promotes the value of education, to be installed in high-traffic areas of their village.

Teachers at Svay Dungkum Primary School were also very interested in the benefits that PSDP offers to their school, but need to supplement their low salaries so are testing a school donation box into which community members can make optional and voluntary contributions to the teachers. The anonymity of a donation box takes away the need for students to pay their teacher each day, which could impact poor students' access to education. SCC is providing technical support to monitor the new solution for a period of three months, after which we will, together with teachers and the community, evaluate its success and make a mutual decision on the way forward.

Khnar Primary School is like Svay Dungkum in that it is near to Siem Reap town, where the cost of living is relatively high. Here, too, teachers and community members have agreed on a solution that works best for them, and students will pay teachers for lessons on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, this is inconsistent with the values of SCC, and so all parties have agreed, amicably, to SCC's withdrawal from the school. The Khnar school director, teachers and community members have expressed their sincere thanks to SCC and SCC donors for building classrooms, stocking a library, bringing electricity to the school, and for other infrastructure improvements and training opportunities since SCC started to work with the school in 2006.

At Wat Mon Thyean School, the impact of the teacher and community members' decision to receive continued support under PSDP is already evident. The School Support Committee, a group of eight community members and the school director, is far more active than they were before. They have led meetings in their village to promote the value of education, conducted home visits for students who have irregular school attendance and most recently, started a basic agriculture class to teach students skills that are relevant to life in their village.

Stay tuned to these web blogs to learn more about developments at Phoum Stung and Wat Mon Thyean as implementation of their 2009 school development plans continue through July 2009.

Community volunteers are now well on their way to becoming mentors for SCC's sponsored students! The three eager volunteers -- Pon Poon, Saleoun, and Sinkosal -- all gathered Wednesday, April 1, for a morning training session at the Son Thai Village Chief's home in rural Siem Reap.

The morning started with an ice breaker to allow the volunteers - who come from three different villages - to get to know each other. Andrea, SCC's General Manager, initiated the training with an introduction to SCC, familiarizing the mentors with our work. Then, Thida, SCC's Programme Officer, trained the volunteers on the mechanics of the Student Sponsorship Program and their integral roles, as student mentors. An energetic and entertaining role-play session between Andrea and Thida helped volunteers understand the do's and don'ts of effective mentoring.

The volunteers also had opportunities to share their educational experiences, particularly the challenges they faced and how they could use their experiences to mentor their students. Pon Poon, age 29, recounted how terribly far school was from his home. A tear came to his eye as he talked about the nights he had to sleep in the rice fields because the roads were too bad for him to make it home before dark.

Thida concluded the session, urging volunteers to reach out to her with questions and problems as they start to work with sponsored students. We hope that the mentor program will not only benefit the students, but also help develop these enthusiastic volunteers to become leaders in their communities.

Photo:  Community volunteers Kosal, Poon, and Salouen stand with SCC's Programme Officer, Thida, following the mentor training:

Students were not in class March 9, 2009 in observance of International Women's Day; however, that did not stop over 40 teachers sitting in local classrooms to participate in the final day of SCC-supported teacher training. The last training sessions took place at Khnar and Phoum Stung Schools.

Teachers came from the four SCC-supported, government-run primary schools, including Svay Dungkum, Khnar, Phoum Stung and Wat Mon Thyean Schools. The training facilitators, normally instructors at the Provincial Teacher Training College and Siem Reap District Office of Education, delivered over 5 hours of dynamic presentations about teaching methodology and classroom management. This was the last of four sessions, spread between Feburary and March. 

Schools for Children of Cambodia, in partnership with the Siem Reap Provincial Teacher Training College, will monitor teachers' implementation of what they learned through school visits and classroom observation, starting in May.  The follow-up will not only help us with evaluation of this teacher training programme, but it will also help us identify needs for future training. 

Mentor recruitment started in early February when Thida met with eight former students - the only former secondary school student in the villages of T'Nong, Roun Kang Thbong, and Son Thai - to advertise the need.  Out of the eight young adults, four candidates applied.  And, of the four who applied, three were chosen. They include two men and one woman, all local Khmers who have completed their secondary education despite a range of obstacles they faced while studying. Thida interviewed each applicant with a rigorous set of questions and was searching for people who genuinely “wanted to help the younger generation;” all of the chosen applicants expressed this interest during their interviews.

The three community-based mentors will be responsible for checking in with sponsored students living in their village.  Through regular home visits, mentors will follow-up on students' school performance, attendance and family situations.  They will offer encouragement, provide advice, and refer students to special services as needed.  Thida will have regular communication with each of the mentors and will support them to support the students.   

Before any work gets started though, Thida will facilitate training sessions for the newly recruited mentors, introducing them to SCC, the Student Sponsorship Programme, their roles and responsibilities, best practices, and ultimately, the students.

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. 

Seven directors and deputy directors from SCC-supported schools finished four days of leadership training on Wednesday, 04 February. The training, held at the government-run Siem Reap Provincial Teacher Training College (PTTC), covered topics related to administration, management of school-community relationships and observation and motivation of teachers and staff, all identified as top training needs during an assessment conducted jointly by SCC and the PTTC in September 2008.

Mr May Paeeng, the director of Svay Dungkum Primary School, thanked SCC profusely upon completion of the training,”It was fantastic to have the opportunity to receive training matching so closely to our needs” he explained. Paeeng was appointed the director of Svay Dungkum in mid-2008, but this was the first formal training relevant to his new role that he has received.

Just as Paeeng's situation demonstrates, there is a need for in-service training in Cambodia as many administrators and teachers have not completed a secondary education, have had a maximum of two years pre-service teacher training and are not fully equipped to carry out their responsibilities.

In fact, poor school leadership was recognised as one of the top causes of low teacher motivation and morale in a recent Valuing Teachers Report conducted by Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and NGO Education Partnership (NEP): http://www.schools4cambodia.org/files/folders/schooldevelopment/entry282.aspx.

The Ministry of Education does provide in-service training, but limited financial resources have led them to adopt a “cascade training” strategy, where experts at the top train those below them until the information reaches school directors and teachers at the very bottom of the pyramid. As a result, teachers and directors rarely, if ever, get the opportunity to learn directly from the experts. For the SCC-supported leadership training, however, the seven administrators from SCC-supported schools studied with Mr. Leav Ora, the director of the PTTC.

Mr. Ora will assist with follow-up visits to each of the schools in mid-2009 to monitor the administrators' implementation of what they learned and identify further training needs.

It is hoped that the leadership training is the first step in helping the directors create a school environment conducive to learning and a school that caters to the education needs of the local community.

SCC invested a total of $226 on the four-day class.

During the mid to late 1970's, the period of the Khmer Rouge, and even during the following years of civil war, most Cambodians didn't have the opportunity for a formal education.  The result is an entire generation who is uneducated and who puts little value on education for their children.

The School Support Committee at Wat Mon Thyean Primary School is trying to change that, at least in the village of Kok Russey Kang Cherng, their community of 125 families, which is serviced by the school.

On Thursday, 22 January, fifty-five community members (including five people from the neighboring village of Boh) gathered to attend a meeting hosted by the School Support Committee.  Held at the school, the meeting's purpose was to promote the importance of education and to announce the School Support Committee's annual school development plan activities (created with the support of SCC). 

There was a festive atmosphere as the community gathered for the meeting.  Traditional music blared through a loud speaker and the children clapped and sang. The Village Chief, Assistant Village Chief, School Director, other School Support Committee members, and Jay, SCC's Programme Officer, spoke at the meeting.  While the importance of sending children to school was the main theme echoed through the speeches, community involvement and participation in the school and the education of their children was also emphasised.

The success of the day can be attributed to the enthusiasm of the School Support Committee who had a friendly competition to see who could recruit the greatest number of people from his or her part of the community to attend the meeting. 

The School Support Committe will follow-up this meeting with a second gathering in February, targeting those families  who were not in attendance on 22 January.  Furthermore, the committee will promote education awareness through monthly home visits to parents of students who attend school irregularly, have poor performance, or are at-risk of dropping out.  In doing so, the School Support Committee is tackling one of their communities' top barriers to education. 

After three days of intense training and planning sessions facilitated by SCC, the School Support Committee (SSC) at Phoum Stung Primary School formulated their 2009 plan to improve access to and quality of education in their community. Participants included the village chief, assistant village chief, school director, assistant school director, a village elder and several prominent community members. The unique issues that the SSC chose to address in their development plan highlight the importance of understanding underlying community problems that affect education and the benefit of drawing on community-based resources to address such problems.

Phoum Stung Primary School and the community that it serves are the second group to participate in an SCC-facilitated development plan workshop. Both the School Support Committees at Phoum Stung and Wat Mon Thyean, where the first workshop was held, raised the lack of value parents place on education as one of the biggest problems. To address this issue, the Phoum Stung community will introduce a life skills class, in which students in grades 4-6 learn to grow fruit and vegetables. The students will be encouraged to use their gardening skills at home so that parents can see the practical benefits of their children’s education. The Phoum Stung School Support Committee also intends to call a village meeting in February to inform parents of the importance of education. They will also design and place signboards that depict the value of education in pictures (thereby catering to illiterate residents) in high-traffic areas throughout the village.

Domestic violence is common in Phoum Stung, and the School Support Committee is concerned about the impact that domestic violence has on students. In a PRA needs assessment conducted in the community in June 2008, both teachers and parents attributed students' irregular attendance and poor performance to domestic violence. As a result, as part of the school development plan, a community member will provide counseling services to students. Teachers will also call parents to meetings to discuss violence and the impact it has on children.

Lastly, the School Support Committee identified poor hygiene practices as on obstacle to education. Frequent illness prevents children from attending school, and prolonged illness often results in drop outs. Working with the Community Health Representative the School Support Committee will identify families with poor hygiene practices and invite the family members to a health and hygiene workshop. Follow-up home visits will be conducted to monitor the workshop's impact. This solution relies entirely on resources already available in Phoum Stung Village, highlighting the value of schools working closely with communities. And, from SCC's perspective, working together with communities ensures that we enhance, rather than undermine, their existing capacity.

SCC has been working with the Phoum Stung community since October 2007. By supporting the community to identify their unique education-related problems and solutions, SCC is helping to ensure that the community has the ability to drive change without SCC’s help in the future.

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:

Teachers, parents, and students convened in a series of SCC-facilitated discussions at Svay Dungkum Primary School in late December, with the purpose of identifying the problems that contribute to students' irregular attendance and high failure rates.

Teachers lamented the fact that students don't get sufficient support and encouragement from home. Many students' parents are uneducated and as a result, put little value on education. Teachers also expressed concern about students' general health, hygiene and undernourishment. They claimed that illness – from colds to malaria -- is one of the most common causes of student absence. But, teachers also acknowledged that they are not properly trained to provide a quality education, and their low government wages are hardly sufficient motivation for them to perform their jobs.

Parents agreed that teachers' low wages are a problem and are eager to develop a community-based solution to keep teachers motivated. Parents also noted that teachers don't pay special attention to underachievers, and with large class sizes, it is easy for low-performing students to fall behind. And, given that it took two rounds of invitations to get parents to attend the SCC-facilitated meetings, teachers' claims that parents put little value on education seem justified!

Equally important were the students' views. To initiate discussion, students drew pictures of what they like about school. Some drew their teachers, others their classrooms, and some their library. In the conversations that followed , students confirmed that most of their parents are illiterate and never take an interest in their school work. They also indicated that students miss class to look after their families' cows or help out with household chores. Students discussed ways to overcome these problems themselves – finishing chores outside of school hours and seeking help with their homework from siblings, friends, or neighbors.

The results of this needs assessment, or Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), will be the basis for Svay Dungkum Primary School's annual development plan, which will be created in an SCC-facilitated workshop in early 2009.

Students at Svay Dungkum proudly display their pictures of what they like about school: