BALAING COMMUNE, Siem Reap province — A campaign promise from one of Cambodia’s minor opposition parties is bringing the issue of early childhood education onto the ballot.
Sixty-percent of ethnic Vietnamese young women surveyed and 90% in indigenous groups have faced discrimination, including problems at school and especially when using their language, according to a new research report.
A small community kindergarten in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district is run by a local teacher who wants to give her students a chance to be prepared for primary school.
Poor students were forced to find work to help their families through the pandemic. Now that schools have reopened, some may never step into a classroom again.
Making sure that all children receive quality education in Covid-19’s “new normal” will require changes in mindset, new soft skills and consideration of economic, political and cultural dimensions, writes educator Neak Piseth.
Higher education institutions will be allowed to reopen after 18 months of disrupted learning, with the Education Ministry setting out guidelines such as mandatory vaccinations, Covid-19 testing and smaller classes to ensure social distancing.
While students were meeting friends and reconnecting, most expressed two major concerns about returning to school: their parents’ reluctance to let them return, and whether they had learned enough in the last year to meet the challenges of a new grade.
For Cambodia’s blind students, school closures and the pandemic have added new difficulties to their studies. Video chats have left them with only portions of lessons, Khmer-language screen reading technology has been lacking, and one of the country’s only braille publishing houses has been temporarily shut due to Covid-19.
Saing Beth, 17, says he’s already abandoned his dream of becoming a police officer. Driving a taxi, as he’s doing now, is not as rewarding, but his family need the money. “Where could they get the money for me to finish school, since they have no income?”
At least one-third of children in the country are not continuing to learn during the school closures, according to a report released earlier this month by Christian aid group World Vision.
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