Over the past six months, the Consortium of Out-of-School Children (CCOOSC) project has provided capacity development to over 6,000 teachers and other educational professionals to help children learn better.
Aide et Action, a French non-profit which worked with education partners on the project, reported that that in the first six months of the year, CCOOSC collaborated with Education Above All Educate a Child and, led by Aide et Action, provided capacity development to over 6,300 teachers and professionals such as principals and school directors.
“More than 168 professional development programmes on topics such as inclusive education, life skills, non-formal or special education, positive disciplines, special need screening, and teaching methodology have been delivered to over 4,000 primary education teachers.
“The activities were enthusiastically received by both teachers and students,” the organisation said.
It also conducted 148 professional development workshops for more than 1,800 education actors, mostly school directors and provincial education office officials.
“Remedial learning packages, life skills programmes, female counselling, database tracking tools, special education, teaching methodologies for multi-lingual education, library management, school annual operational planning, and vision screening were among the topics covered in the training,” said Vorn Samphors, country director of Aide et Action.
He described the capacity of primary school teachers in Cambodia as a barrier in education, especially in rural and remote areas where teachers are less qualified.
He explained that when teachers are qualified and professionally trained, they help all children to do well in school.
Yi Khob, principal of Prasat Primary School, in Siem Reap province’s Puok district, said that thanks to the support of the project, his school has made many changes.
He added that most of the teachers are satisfied and participate in the project activities.
“Students’ abilities are also increasing after accessing remedial learning programmes and the dropout rate has reduced. Parents trust the school management, participate more, and support their children at home and send them to school,” he said.
“In the previous two years, the school environment suffered. There was no school yard, garbage disposal or place for students to park their bicycles. Many students were late to enrol. The quality of education for students deteriorated significantly as a result of Covid-19. There were many slow learners and many students’ capacities were not matched to their grade. We lacked school materials and could not provide clean drinking water,” he added.
He is proud to note that the school environment has changed. The school has built a water storage tank with filters for the students, renovated the school grounds and constructed garbage incinerators and sorting facilities, along with modern ablution blocks.
(Article was published on the Phnom Penh Post / Publication date 01 August 2023)
