Volunteer teachers Khon Okha (sitting) and Eb Mon in their makeshift classrooms under a house. (Photo: Uk Sav Bory, RFA)[Poor] State of education in Sre Ambil district, Koh Kong province
22 Nov 2006
By Uk Sav Bory
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Supporting himself on his right prosthesis leg, an elder man wearing a black traditional Cambodian pair of trousers coming down to his knee, and a traditional white shirt, is writing slowly on the blackboard with his shaking hand. The elder man’s name is 63-year-old Eb Mon from Chhouk village, Chi Khor Leu commune, Sre Ambil district, Koh Kong commune.
Prior to 1990, he lived in Champey commune, Angkor Chey district, Kampot province. He lost his right foot from the knee down when he came to Koh Kong to search for his son and stepped on a landmine. Unable to return back to his home village, he decided to settle in Chhouk Village since then.
Eb Mon added that most of the villagers are illiterates, and he is volunteering to teach all of them to read, young and old alike, his students also include monks and he has been teaching since 1990, even before his leg was properly healed. Dragging himself on a chair, Eb Mon teaches three sessions per day: morning and afternoon session for 1st and 2nd grade, and evening session for adolescents and adults learning how to read.
Elder Eb Mon sadi: “I am teaching three sessions a day. Each year, I earn from each family one can of rice (~10 to 15 kilos) even if there are 3 or 4 people per family attending classes. Some could not even afford to give anything, they just don’t have anything. Since I started teaching, I sit and dragged myself on the chair and used up 12 pairs of pants. They all have holes in the bottom only. In 1990, I didn’t have my prosthesis leg yet, and I just got it.”
Sin Khiem, Chi Khor Leu commune chief, said that the majority of native Sre Ambil district people did not attend school. People living used to be considered as isolated, and they lived in wooded area where school and education services are unavailable. People here are too busy with clearing the woods for crops to survive.
Another factor which causes the large number of illiterates in Chi Khor Leu commune is the lack of teachers, lack of classrooms, and lack of roads. The teaching is done in pagodas. Education only started to take root in the 90s. Currently, there are students who can read and write, and some completed primary education and went on to junior high school in Sre Ambil which is located about 20 kilometers from the villages.
Parents here do not have the mean to send their children to school and they don’t have money to pay for the boat ride the children needed to cross the bay to go to school. Therefore, they stop their children schooling and make them work in the field, or in fishing boat, and help the family. Only this year, did the Chi Khor Leu commune sees the building of its first junior high school and a primary school. Several students are attending classes there. Nevertheless, the classrooms have not been completed yet. Because of the lack of classrooms, children must take turn attending classes.
Commune chief Sin Khiem said: “There is nobody who finished high school here, the most we have are people who finish from Sre Ambil junior high school only. There are 10 students who went to take the final junior high school exam. In truth, in Chi Khor Leu commune, there is nobody who completed the high school exam yet.”
Trapeang Kandal village chief said that he is able to read and write because he learnt it during the Khmer Rouge regime. After 1979, the CPP gave him some more teaching and made him the village chief. He can take some notes and can turn in some reports: “I don’t know how it was under the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era, I only know that my generation, we studied up to 4 or 5th grade, then everybody stopped school because after primary school, we lacked the means.”
Vil Moo, a 57-year-old man living in Chhouk village, said that people living in isolated area, do not think much about education, if they want to study, they have to stay at the pagoda. But for girls, they cannot live in the pagoda, so they stay illiterate. Furthermore, nobody knows how to read in the area. He said that nowadays, there are several volunteer teachers and government teachers who came from Kampot and Takeo province [to teach here]: “With the lack of roads, people here are uneducated. Those who live in the pagoda, learn some, those who do not live near monks, are uneducated. They are even scared of cars, when they see strangers coming by, they would run to hide in their houses. They couldn’t even say buffaloes, cows, and chicken properly.”
30-year-old Pov Savik from Trapeang Kandal village said that the majority of women today are not educated, they can read somewhat by attending literacy classes: “There was no teacher [back then]. It’s only now that there are teachers coming form the east to help teach. Here, nobody has been properly educated.”
Long Tha, principal of the Chi Khor Leu primary school, said that his school has a tin-roof building with 4 rooms. One room is turned into the office and 3 rooms are used as classrooms. Students are attending 7 grades, with two classes for first graders. Each class holds 60 students each. The ministry of education decided to start a junior high school program this year but there is no classroom for the students, so the junior high school asked to borrow one classroom from the elementary school to provide teaching for the 7th graders. With this situation, there is a lack of classrooms for elementary children. The children have to take turn attending classes which are divided into 3 sessions: morning, noon, and late afternoon. The school has only three teachers who all have to teach 3 sessions each without extra pay: “Whatever we do is to ensure that we get a brick and mortar school building. The current building is in disrepair. It can function this year, next year it might no longer function because the roof is about to fall down.”
Som Sokha, principal of Chi Khor Leu junior high school, said the school is newly established and the school just poured its foundation, currently the school lacks classrooms and well as teachers: “There are not enough teachers, we can ask elementary school teachers to help teach math and chemistry. I am responsible in teaching Cambodian and English, and I also teach the people (adults?).”
Khon Okha, a village volunteer teacher said that he is teaching 1st graders twice a day. He has been teaching for 4 years already, and he received 100,000 riels ($25) a month from a German foundation: “This is an isolated place, therefore, they pick whoever has some education to teach the children. In the past, there was no government teacher here. The German foundation came and chose those who are educated to teach.”
Sieng Mongkol, Sre Ambil education department director, said that the majority of people in Sre Ambil district do not pay much attention about sending their children to the school, both before and now. In the Chi Khor Leu and Chi Khor Krom communes, the villagers are observing the old tradition of keeping their children to help with field work and fishing, they did not pay much attention to the education.
Sieng Mongkol said that the Asian Development Bank had provided a funding of $3,100 to build classrooms in the Trapeang Kandal village, Chi Khor Leu commune. He is now pursuing funding to build classrooms in Chhouk village also.
Chi Khor Leu commune is located about 30 kilometers from National Road 4. The commune consists of 4 villages: Trapeang Kandal, Chi Khor Leu, Chhouk and Tany. The commune counts 627 Cambodian and Cham families. The commune extends on 50,000-hectare of land with 649-hectare of cultivated land, and 474-hectare of rainy season rice fields. Besides from the cultivated land, the area is generally wooded and hilly. Chi Khor Leu does not have a health center.
Prior to 1990, he lived in Champey commune, Angkor Chey district, Kampot province. He lost his right foot from the knee down when he came to Koh Kong to search for his son and stepped on a landmine. Unable to return back to his home village, he decided to settle in Chhouk Village since then.
Eb Mon added that most of the villagers are illiterates, and he is volunteering to teach all of them to read, young and old alike, his students also include monks and he has been teaching since 1990, even before his leg was properly healed. Dragging himself on a chair, Eb Mon teaches three sessions per day: morning and afternoon session for 1st and 2nd grade, and evening session for adolescents and adults learning how to read.
Elder Eb Mon sadi: “I am teaching three sessions a day. Each year, I earn from each family one can of rice (~10 to 15 kilos) even if there are 3 or 4 people per family attending classes. Some could not even afford to give anything, they just don’t have anything. Since I started teaching, I sit and dragged myself on the chair and used up 12 pairs of pants. They all have holes in the bottom only. In 1990, I didn’t have my prosthesis leg yet, and I just got it.”
Sin Khiem, Chi Khor Leu commune chief, said that the majority of native Sre Ambil district people did not attend school. People living used to be considered as isolated, and they lived in wooded area where school and education services are unavailable. People here are too busy with clearing the woods for crops to survive.
Another factor which causes the large number of illiterates in Chi Khor Leu commune is the lack of teachers, lack of classrooms, and lack of roads. The teaching is done in pagodas. Education only started to take root in the 90s. Currently, there are students who can read and write, and some completed primary education and went on to junior high school in Sre Ambil which is located about 20 kilometers from the villages.
Parents here do not have the mean to send their children to school and they don’t have money to pay for the boat ride the children needed to cross the bay to go to school. Therefore, they stop their children schooling and make them work in the field, or in fishing boat, and help the family. Only this year, did the Chi Khor Leu commune sees the building of its first junior high school and a primary school. Several students are attending classes there. Nevertheless, the classrooms have not been completed yet. Because of the lack of classrooms, children must take turn attending classes.
Commune chief Sin Khiem said: “There is nobody who finished high school here, the most we have are people who finish from Sre Ambil junior high school only. There are 10 students who went to take the final junior high school exam. In truth, in Chi Khor Leu commune, there is nobody who completed the high school exam yet.”
Trapeang Kandal village chief said that he is able to read and write because he learnt it during the Khmer Rouge regime. After 1979, the CPP gave him some more teaching and made him the village chief. He can take some notes and can turn in some reports: “I don’t know how it was under the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era, I only know that my generation, we studied up to 4 or 5th grade, then everybody stopped school because after primary school, we lacked the means.”
Vil Moo, a 57-year-old man living in Chhouk village, said that people living in isolated area, do not think much about education, if they want to study, they have to stay at the pagoda. But for girls, they cannot live in the pagoda, so they stay illiterate. Furthermore, nobody knows how to read in the area. He said that nowadays, there are several volunteer teachers and government teachers who came from Kampot and Takeo province [to teach here]: “With the lack of roads, people here are uneducated. Those who live in the pagoda, learn some, those who do not live near monks, are uneducated. They are even scared of cars, when they see strangers coming by, they would run to hide in their houses. They couldn’t even say buffaloes, cows, and chicken properly.”
30-year-old Pov Savik from Trapeang Kandal village said that the majority of women today are not educated, they can read somewhat by attending literacy classes: “There was no teacher [back then]. It’s only now that there are teachers coming form the east to help teach. Here, nobody has been properly educated.”
Long Tha, principal of the Chi Khor Leu primary school, said that his school has a tin-roof building with 4 rooms. One room is turned into the office and 3 rooms are used as classrooms. Students are attending 7 grades, with two classes for first graders. Each class holds 60 students each. The ministry of education decided to start a junior high school program this year but there is no classroom for the students, so the junior high school asked to borrow one classroom from the elementary school to provide teaching for the 7th graders. With this situation, there is a lack of classrooms for elementary children. The children have to take turn attending classes which are divided into 3 sessions: morning, noon, and late afternoon. The school has only three teachers who all have to teach 3 sessions each without extra pay: “Whatever we do is to ensure that we get a brick and mortar school building. The current building is in disrepair. It can function this year, next year it might no longer function because the roof is about to fall down.”
Som Sokha, principal of Chi Khor Leu junior high school, said the school is newly established and the school just poured its foundation, currently the school lacks classrooms and well as teachers: “There are not enough teachers, we can ask elementary school teachers to help teach math and chemistry. I am responsible in teaching Cambodian and English, and I also teach the people (adults?).”
Khon Okha, a village volunteer teacher said that he is teaching 1st graders twice a day. He has been teaching for 4 years already, and he received 100,000 riels ($25) a month from a German foundation: “This is an isolated place, therefore, they pick whoever has some education to teach the children. In the past, there was no government teacher here. The German foundation came and chose those who are educated to teach.”
Sieng Mongkol, Sre Ambil education department director, said that the majority of people in Sre Ambil district do not pay much attention about sending their children to the school, both before and now. In the Chi Khor Leu and Chi Khor Krom communes, the villagers are observing the old tradition of keeping their children to help with field work and fishing, they did not pay much attention to the education.
Sieng Mongkol said that the Asian Development Bank had provided a funding of $3,100 to build classrooms in the Trapeang Kandal village, Chi Khor Leu commune. He is now pursuing funding to build classrooms in Chhouk village also.
Chi Khor Leu commune is located about 30 kilometers from National Road 4. The commune consists of 4 villages: Trapeang Kandal, Chi Khor Leu, Chhouk and Tany. The commune counts 627 Cambodian and Cham families. The commune extends on 50,000-hectare of land with 649-hectare of cultivated land, and 474-hectare of rainy season rice fields. Besides from the cultivated land, the area is generally wooded and hilly. Chi Khor Leu does not have a health center.
5 comments:
How patronizing the KI comment.
SiS
I am very please to see how people are very concerned about the future of the children. Even they are poor but there ways for them to contribute to the wellfare to the Nation. It is very wonderfull.
The PhDs in US who can't read and write Khmer should be shame of themselves.
These volunteers are real and do not blow hot air like some we knew here.
Salute,
They are good models for other Cambodians in and outside the country who love to see the prevalence of peace and development in their motherland.
They are good encouragements for other capable Cambodia to start to think over, "What can i do for the land I belong to wherever on the planet I am?"
They are the real heroes of Cambodia!
Everyone want to helpe they homeland but when you step down from the plane and take few hours tour around phnom penh see million dollars houses belong to corruption people inside goverment everything in your mind will be gone.
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