Written by our Cambodia Team.
October program in villages.
Since September 14th we began to move the teaching we had been doing in the villages, back to our supplementary education centres, like pre COVID-19 times. We currently have 309 students who are attending the supplementary education classes with Children’s Action for Development (CAD) and it is so nice to see some past students coming back in to re-register for the supplementary education classes!
Breakdown of student numbers in the classes:
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- CAD 1: 121 students
- CAD 2: 61 students
- CAD 3: 127 students
We are very happy to report that since September there has been an increase in attendance of 46 students!
New building: Supplementary Education Class Centre (SEC)
At the beginning of November students moved from the old supplementary education centre to the new building (500m away) which currently has three classrooms constructed, with a capacity for 133 students. A lot of work has gone into the new SEC classrooms, as well as the outdoor area, which includes bamboo fences and a beautiful garden constructed with recycled water bottles collected from around the community. The students will also have the opportunity to plant flowers in the garden!
Program Delivery: Teacher Training
At the beginning of October, we delivered teacher training sessions at the Supplementary Education Class Centre. Our Program
Manager, Jordy is running the teacher training sessions and Community Coordinator, Phearom is supporting. Jordy is also going to train herself to increase knowledge around particular teaching methods, including inquiry learning, to increase the effectiveness of the program and improve quality education for the students at SEC.
There are ten teachers who are currently attending the training sessions and are experiencing a learning curve of discovering more about engaging and inquiry based learning. At the end of the training program we believe we will see results and new skills that the teachers can apply with their students in their classes.
Update on Government Partner Schools
It is really important that we are keeping connected with our school partners during this time to understand the challenges that they are facing and as a result, guide the ways in which we can support them. Particularly, challenges around students who are struggling with learning is a way in which we can utilise our hub staff to support their learning.
Schools re-opening
In the process of opening the schools in the second phase for high school, the Ministry of Education is allowed to open only grades 9 and 12, as they will take final exams in December. During the re-opening of schools in this second phase, 100 students in grade 9 and 127 students in grade 12 at our government partner schools all returned to their classes.
During the re-opening of primary schools, the Ministry are allowing only two subjects, Khmer language and Mathematics be taught, in two separate classes. For example, if there are 40 students per class, these will be separated into two groups by the teacher, with one group studying on Monday and the second on Tuesday.
Challenges faced
The challenges that are faced by many of the schools are concerns of their students not being able to receive a good education due to the long school closures and students forgetting information. The teachers have reported that students haven’t been active in their studies and they are finding it difficult to teach them, which raises concerns for the final exams in December.
