Cambodia: real lives

School building reflects state of education in rural Cambodia

Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia

When the monsoon rain comes in the afternoon, the students of a rural Cambodian primary school run with books in hand from their leaking classroom to the cover of the nearby pagoda. The school, located in Svay Rieng Province, was built in 1986 by the local community to educate the increasing number of children born following the devastation of the Khmer Rouge period.

After 22 years, the dilapidated building is in desperate need of repair. Rain pours through gaps in broken roof tiles and termites eat away its aging timber frame. A typical day sees students perspiring in the energy-sapping heat, while trying to listen to their teacher over the noise from adjacent classrooms.

The principal explains that the teachers work with only basic aids. "It is very difficult to maintain equipment in this building because we can't lock it up; the teachers need to carry their equipment all the time." He adds that the building shakes in the wind; it feels like the only solid thing is the concrete floor.

Every day the creaking building fills with around 250 students, although with just three classrooms, the students can only be schooled in half-day shifts lasting three and a half hours each. For one week, a class attends school in the morning and the next in the afternoon, swapping to share the burden of the afternoon heat, rain and general fatigue.

The principal and his six teachers all live in the surrounding villages. A teacher's financial reward is meagre, despite the prestige of government employment they feel within their village. Part-time, the teachers earn only US$10 per month. By all accounts, this is not enough to feed themselves, let alone their families. When not teaching at the school, they are subsistence farmers like most others in their community. Their school is community supported and none of the parents or students talked about paying informal fees to teachers, which is a common occurrence at state-run schools.

Class sizes are big. According to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports statistics (2006-07) in Svay Rieng, there were on average 41 students per primary school class. This increases to 47 students per class in secondary school. Overflowing classrooms are a problem in this school. In one class there are 70 grade-one students in a room. "It's difficult to control them during class," the principal admits. Children sit three to five people per desk and often share textbooks.

While the village committees conduct annual campaigns and ad-hoc household visits to encourage children to attend school regularly, as many as 40 per cent of school-age children living in the area do not regularly attend class. The majority of these children are female. In the primary school, male students outnumber female students two to one. While retention rates have been slowly improving up to grade-six in Svay Rieng, more girls continue to drop-out of secondary school than boys. A possible contributor to drop-out rates is the fact that there are three primary schools in the local commune area and only one secondary school offering education until grade-nine. To attend upper secondary school (grades 10-12), students have to travel by bicycle to the district town, which for students in this village can be more than 15kms away.

While children are dropping out of school, often through no fault of their own, most children we encounter in surrounding villages want to study. One 10-year-old boy from a neighbouring school says he wants to attend class every day, except Sunday, "a full-day too, not just a half-day". With a serious face he tells stories of teachers who only intermittently attend class. "Sometimes the teacher does nothing and lets us sit around and then sends us home," he says, adding, "Other times the teacher assigns homework and promises to correct the exercise the next day but when I go to school the teacher doesn't correct the homework." A central aim of the Cambodian government's Education for All (2003-2015) strategy is to give all primary students access to a full school day.

Two weeks before the national election, at the busiest time of the year when families are planting wet season rice seedlings, the school yard and classrooms are empty. It is near the end of the school year but the schools are supposed to be open for one more week. In the village, children tell us that, according to the teachers, school has finished. At the school, the principal says the teachers arrive in the morning, but there are not enough students, so they go home. He reassures us he is trying to do his best with limited resources. "The quality of education in this school is good according to the score that we get from the final exam," he notes with pride.

Sopheak, an 11-year-old student, comments on the condition of the building as we sit by the small pond behind the school. "I want the walls to be changed to concrete because the wind and rain makes us cold," she says with a sombre face.

One of ChildFund Cambodia's first projects is to construct a new school building to replace the community-built structure.

Carol Mortensen, Country Director of ChildFund Cambodia, believes constructing a new school building is the first step toward developing the children's minds. "Kids need a safe and comfortable space in which to learn in," she explains. "It also gives us the chance to develop strong relationships with teachers and the community to tackle the bigger issues such as students dropping out."

The principal agrees, adding that the additional classrooms will reduce the number of students per class and the kindergarten will enable older students, who have to mind younger siblings, to continue studying. "We are all very excited," he beams.