|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Phnom Penh diary - November 28-30, 2000
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Ingrid
and I visited Phnom Penh, to meet with both the Save the Children folks and
Mu Sochua - the Minister of Women's and Veterans affairs. Sochua spoke
at the October 2000 Pacific Rim Forum in Sydney (http://www.prf.com),
when Mick chaired a panel on "Civil Society in Asia: Business' shared
interest".
You can download an Acrobat (*.pdf) summary of Mick's
comments to the Forum, by right clicking "Partnerships
in Corporate Social Responsibility".
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yates'
family project status
|
Ole
Bernt Harvold has now taken over the leadership of Save the Children Norway,
as Gunnar Anderson has moved on to Sri Lanka. So, Ole Bernt and Sarath,
aided by Thor and Simeth, brought us up to date on the Reconciliation Area /
"Anlong Veng" project.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trapang
Prasat
|
The
road to Anlong Veng from Siem Reap is fully completed, so the trip now takes
less than three hours. There are still mines along some of the
roadsides, so care is required....
As
to the Yates' project, 50% of the project's activity in 2000 has
been in Trapang Prasat, as noted in the June
diary. The school and library building projects have been
completed as planed. Where a straw covered hut stood a few kilometers outside
 Trapang
Prasat in March, there is now a 5 classroom "yates family" school.
It caters for about 200 children. Grades 1 and 2 are taught, to children up
to 16 years old, currently in a one shift session due to teacher
shortages and the children's other activities. Many of the children are from
farming families so they also work part-time in the fields to help their
parents.
In the centre of
Trapang Prasat, the library and community facilities have been
added to the existing Save the Children and Careé
school buildings. This primary school has increased its enrolment by about
100 children, so now caters for about 500 kids, in 2 shifts each day (due to
the teacher shortage, and the limited physical school space).
One new development is that the parents have started to
"push" the teachers to do things for the kids - to the point where
the Trapang District Governor (Mr. Cheat Chum - we met him on the March trip) organized a face-to-face meeting with all concerned. Democracy
coming to the school system?
In general, the Trapang Prasat community is very active in helping to
improve the school programs - in Sarath's view, partly reflecting the very practical
nature of these ex-Khmer Rouge families, and partly due to their very open
mind (with no historical "baggage") on what is the right way to
run a school. The schools are very proud that there is none of the previous "child beating"
by teachers (!!), and the District is on its way to "child friendly" schooling. All
in all, some great developments.
|
|
|
|
|
|
School
planning
|
Second,
there is a big new school being built by
the Hun Sen Government
outside of Trapang, but it is clear that
some cluster schools are still going to be needed.
Save the Children feel that the central school infrastructure of Trapang
Prasat will be sufficient, but there are several outlying groups of
families that will still be without schooling. Mine clearing is moving
forward, courtesy of the Halo Trust, but it is far from complete.
Save
the Children analyses that there is a need for 3 new Grade 1 to 6 schools in
the District, and 4 cluster / mini schools for grades 1-3. They have made
a proposal for funding to a major new donor source, using the Trapang
Prasat plan as the model - we should know
in the New Year if this will be approved and can be executed.
The Siem Reap Provincial Education Office (the PEO) is
very active in the teacher training programs, and in building a school administration
system. They are retaining overall responsibility for the program, although
Trapang Prasat is technically in another Province. The PEO continue to see the
Trapang Prasat program as the model for future Reconciliation Area school
projects.
Back
on the road to Anlong, from a community perspective it is interesting that
people are now settling in the newly mine cleared area, closer to the new
school. In fact, rice fields have appeared in what only last year was
an unused and desolate area by the roadside.
A
National third party evaluation of Save the Children Norway's Education
program is currently underway, including of course in Trapang and Anlong.
The report is due year end, and will provide invaluable benchmarking data.
It will also provide some updates on enrolment percentages and coverage.
|
` |
|
|
|
|
New
area - Varin
|
As
we agreed in June (see the June
Diary), Sarath, Simeth and Thor conducted a thorough assessment of
the Varin area, north of Angkor Chum where we have helped with school
building. An area map is on the The
Anlong Veng project pages. It is less than 35
kilometers from Angkor Chum to Varin, but the roads are awful. In fact it is
only possible to pass by motorcycle, and at some points the team was chest
deep in water! Fortunately, it seems that the mines have not been shifted by the floods,
although we must wait for the drier months to be sure.
Whilst this area is quite close to Siem Reap, the people are almost all
locals and thus ex-Khmer Rouge. This is different to the
Northern Reconciliation areas around Anlong Veng and Trapang Prasat, where
many people have returned from other parts of the Country after the war. The
Khmer dialect in the area is quite different and often difficult to follow
for people from Phnom Penh. Ironically, several of the population en
route to Varin spoke French rather than English. The people are friendly,
and reminded the Save the Children visitors of the people of Trapang Prasat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
New
cluster schools
|
 There
is a 2 shift lower school in Angkor Chum. There is also a grade 1-2
primary school at Kambor, and schools to grade 6 in Svay Sar and
Varin.
Between
these centres there is essentially no other effective schooling. In the last
quarter of 2000, extra funding allows Save the Children to build 5
primary cluster /mini schools along this difficult "road". The five communities are shown on the map - which is only
roughly representative, as maps are only now being drawn up in details by
the PEO.
Estimates
are that there are 1577 children of grade 1-11 age along the 5
communities mentioned, in 1365 families. The target is to reach at
least 50% of the children next year. In 2001 the schools will use the new
"flexible school time" plan developed by the central Governments
MOEYS - essentially planning 7 months schooling out of 12, working around
the seasonal weather and farming influences.
The
design of the small schools is of an open sided construction, which is
expandable. They will be used not just as schools, but as community
centres - a little reminiscent of the old "pagoda" schools.
Eventually, when each is "morphed" into a standard 5 classroom
school, these constructions will become library and administrative centres -
just as executed in Trapang Prasat. The fundamental issue, though, is recruiting
teachers. The Siem Reap PEO is trying hard to find locals who can be
trained as primary teachers, and is asking the community to support the
teachers with rice etc. If they can't find locals, they plan to send some
student teachers from the Siem Reap training centre, or possibly recruit
from the Varin school.
Unfortunately
all the kids still will not be able to get to school in all seasons - so detailed future
construction plans are being drawn up on how best to serve the
area. The Siem Reap PEO is part way through a major mapping effort, including census
data, which will really help.
On
the other hand, the PEO does have all the skills in hand now to extend
the programs to difficult rural areas, so the Trapang Prasat work remains a
critical model to help
design plans for other areas. The Save the Children team have been involved
in building this capability, including via training workshops completed in 4
districts, and scheduled for Angkor Chum and Varin soon.
The PEO has already shared its
"Reconciliation Area" programs with the authorities in Kampong Thum ( a
Province directly
adjoining to the east of Siem Reap) and Stung Treng (which is to the north
east, to the other side of Preah Vihear Province (in which Anlong Veng and
Trapang Prasat are physically located).
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
big picture for the PEO in 2001
|
The
critical PEO issues for the coming year remain
school building infrastructure, training of effective teachers, motivation of teachers, when pay is so poor, consistent school administration, involvement of the
local community in the schools, elimination of "repetition" in the
class teaching.
Repetition?
Well, imagine you are a ten year old, and have worked you way through grades
1 and 2. Then, the next year at school you are doing the same kind of
classes ... you would probably drop out, which is what many kids do in the
rural areas. Put another way, the issue is to extend the level of
grade teaching, to encourage continuity of children's attendance as well as
to further their education. It is also critical to ensure that all schools are
truly "child friendly" so that the kids want to come to
school.
Elimination
of "repetition" is thus a key 2001 issue both nationally and
to the Siem Reap PEO working in the rural areas.
By
the way, lest we all think it is over soon, there are an estimated 750,000
displaced people in Cambodia today - a massive percentage of a small
population.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
big picture for Save the Children in 2001
|
Simeth (Save the Children Norway's Deputy Program Director) confirmed
that 2001 education efforts will stay focused on the 4 Northern Provinces
where they currently work. Basic education is the cornerstone of the
program, with Primary Grades the critical first step. Trapang Prasat is
emerging as a real model for other areas, and Save will also be testing an
integrated Early Childhood Development (ECD) program in one Province, to roll
out later. They also hope to develop "non formal" / income
generating programs for the older children - getting closer to vocational
training. The 2001 education programs will thus focus on:
- Enriching teaching quality
- Broadening access to schooling in hard to reach areas
- Nationwide sharing of learning and best practices
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Yates' plan in 2001
|
Essentially,
we will continue with the course set this year. We will build some mini
schools in the Varin area, although the program focus will shift more towards
teacher training and capacity building than pure school construction. We
also committed to fully evaluate whether "leap frogging"
in communication / technology project is possible - as discussed in the Siem
Reap notes from June 2000.
We
did discuss moving ahead into the Svay Leu district - but this is probably
even more difficult than the Varin work, so we are most likely to favor staying
in areas we've started (and thus quality work) over a lot more geographic expansion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future
Cooperation?
|
During
this trip, we also arranged to meet Bernie Krisher (who is
running the successful Cambodian
Schools Building project) and Bill Herod (of the
National
NGO Forum). Bill specializes in Information Technology, and
helped start the successful Kids Cambodian web design operation (they manage the Cambodian Schools site, Save
the Children Norway and NGO Forum sites, as well as The
Cambodia Daily). We are exploring ways to cooperate - especially
in technology - hopefully more on that in due course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Slide
Presentation to King Edward's School, Bath
- November 2002
Anlong
Veng & Trapang Prasat photos - March 3 2003
Angkor
Chum & Varin photos - March 4 2003
Svay
Leu photos - March 5 2003
Siem
Reap / Artisans d'Angkor - February 20 2004
Anlong
Veng & Trapang Prasat
- February 21 2004
Dangrek
Mountains & Preah Vihear
Temple - February
22 2004
Kulen
District & Koh Ker Temple - February 23 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mail
us if you would like to help.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
e-mail webmaster
© yates family 2005
No content may be copied without the author's permission.
|
|
|
