Koh Kreusna Primary School is a Cambodia Consortium for Out of School Children (CCOSC) school in the Kampong Trach district, and located 37.5 kilometers from the Kampot Provincial Office of Education, Youth, and Sport. The school is a six-classroom structure with six teachers and 130 children of coastal fishermen.
Mrs. Ton Sokunthea, the director and teacher at Koh Kreusna Primary School, is delighted with the school’s development achievements, particularly the improved capability of her teachers, librarian, and school management committee due to the project’s training.
Before the interventions of the CCOSC, Koh Kreusna Primary School faced lots of difficulties, including a poor school environment and insufficient teaching and learning materials. Teachers had to utilize their ingenuity to draw and write on paper, but those materials did not last long, were perishable, and cost more money. The school used a traditional model of teaching and learning. There was no actual system in place to track or prevent dropouts. There was no clean area for youngsters to wash their hands. The classrooms were neither appealing nor well organized following Child-Friendly School standards. Because the school management committee did not grasp their roles and responsibilities, community fundraising remained limited. The dissemination of children’s learning performance from school to parents and from parents to school was insufficient. It was difficult for children to locate a decent area to play and relax during their breaks because the school surroundings lacked decorative flower gardens, bio gardens, and playgrounds. These issues prompted the director to seek assistance from other sources other than from the school itself.
After KAPE, one of the CCOSC members, intervened at Koh Kreushna Primary School for the past two years, this school has been changing its face and becoming increasingly developed. The project has been providing technical assistance and funding for school development since 2021. The project has helped to improve the school environment, classroom decorations, teaching and learning materials, sanitary facilities, hand-washing facilities, and especially the training to strengthen the teachers’ capacity to teach struggling students and those at risk of dropping out. The activity to help struggling students and those at risk of dropping out is very important, which is the core project activity to encourage the students not to drop out and to enjoy their learning and beautiful classrooms. The learning outcomes have improved compared to the time before the project was here. They can now continue in higher grades. In 2023, Koh Kreusna Primary School received 2,800,000 Riels (equivalent to 700 U.S. dollars) as school provisional grant for the school development from the project plus a school operating funding of 2,650,000 Riels (equivalent to 660 U.S. dollars) for improving the school environment, decorating classrooms according to the Child-Friendly School standards, and producing teaching and learning materials. The project also provides training to school management committees, directors, and student councils.
“I am very happy that this project has contributed to the school’s success in school development work. Next year, we plan to decorate the school office, construct a garden, and build a playground. I have a message that to make children like coming to school regularly, it is required that all the teachers come to teach regularly, respect the time in and out, and especially have attractive teaching materials. For the classrooms, they must arrange them in an orderly and beautiful way, which is called a child-friendly school, and motivate the teachers to teach students. I would request KAPE to help train my teachers to develop new skills,” Mrs. Ton Sokunthea said.
Despite the short-term involvement of the project in the school development process, the project has brought about changes in teaching and learning methods, the school environment, classroom decorations, sanitation, hand washing basins, and more at Koh Kreusna Primary School. These are responding to the local children’s basic needs. The teachers have gained new experiences and knowledge from the project’s implementation.
“The project has made a lot of progress in my school, such as decorating classrooms and improving the school environment. In addition, the project provides training on database tracking tools to retrain children in school.” “This project has helped my school develop, but I would like the project to continue to help other schools,” said Mr. Kang Vit, the Grade 6 teacher, when the break bells rang.
KAPE implements the CCOSC project in collaboration with Aide et Action; with co-financial support from Education Above All’s Educate a Child program, provides training for teachers, school directors, librarians, parent meetings, school management committees, database tracking tools, materials, scholarships, school building renovations, libraries, technical support, school development budgets, toilet renovations, and set up hand washing facilities, improved access to the fishermen’s children education in the project by implementing key activities, increasing enrollment and improving the quality of primary education for children in the areas. The school development budget has eased the burden on Koh Kreusna Primary School to lead and manage the children’s education to achieve better learning outcomes.
