The best teachers are , parents that want their kids to have a good education and learning skills.

The best school rooms are not made of bricks and mortar, but under a mango tree with natural aircon and sun lighting, or at home.

In this day and age , I don't think it is necessary for kids to know EVERYTHING, but because the world is changing so fast with new information becoming available every day, it is more important for kids to know HOW to access that information quickly.
All the 3 girls, [ 5,,13 and 15 yo ] in my adopted family have laptop computers with internet access, and it has surprised me at how fast they have learnt, especially the 5 yo.

taabarang wrote: I have lived for many years in a small village, population around 2,000, for a long time. My two children attend local rural schools and have done so for many years now My sister-in-law has been a teacher for over 20 years so I also get feedback from her. My wife and I run a private school where we teach English to local children. In addition I was a high school teacher of French, German and English in the US. I also speak Romanian and Cambodian, so I am aware learning problems that non-native speakers face when learning a foreign language.

What about the schools? My daughter is in her last year in elementary school, the equivalent of US grade 6 and my son is in grade 7.

There is no electricity, so forget computer training and fans, let alone air conditioning.
There is no music or singing instruction.
There are no organised sports. I've seen them play unsupervised football; it looked like a kung fu movie.
The bathrooms are outdoors and locked; most of the kids don't know how to use a toilet and the teachers don't want to clean them up. The kids defecate or urinate in the fields.
There are frequently not enough textbooks so parents who have the money have to buy them at the market. There are shortages because people from the ministry of education, who are supposed to supply the schools, frequently sell them to vendors in the markets. The books are easy to identify, they are either published or paid for publishing by NGOs and have "not for sale in Cambodian on the cover.
The rooms are overcrowded, each class has a minimum of 40 students, but 50 is more the norm and 60 is not unheard of.
No khmer rouge history is taught at all in the schools.
My son studies physics and chemistry, but there is no laboratory available.

How about teachers?
They are required to have have a grade 12 education followed by 2 years of teacher training. The same is true for teachers in grades 7-9, but their curriculum is different. No further details available.
For grade school teachers the salary for teaching 4 hours a day 6 days a week is $150/month. Current rumor has it that the retirement pay is 50% but that might be raised since election year is on the horizon. In any case it is not a living wage and it is next to impossible for a single teacher to break even.

My next related post will consider the children who attend school and their parents.

Taa, on a completely selfish note, do you have access to the national curriculum?

Not only in rural area but in Phnom Penh too, laboratory is still the problem for public school.

It sounds like at least some NGOs are trying to do their bit to help education in Cambodia by providing the textbooks. Is it certain it was some greedy government lackey who sold those textbooks to the market vendor, or could it have been some student's families who sold them? Just asking.

Soi Dog wrote:It sounds like at least some NGOs are trying to do their bit to help education in Cambodia by providing the textbooks. Is it certain it was some greedy government lackey who sold those textbooks to the market vendor, or could it have been some student's families who sold them? Just asking.

You missed a likely culprit - the greedy NGO employee...

Username Taken wrote:

Soi Dog wrote:It sounds like at least some NGOs are trying to do their bit to help education in Cambodia by providing the textbooks. Is it certain it was some greedy government lackey who sold those textbooks to the market vendor, or could it have been some student's families who sold them? Just asking.

You can buy those books at any roadside bookseller (outside any govt school). If you can read Khmer, it clearly says on them that they are Not For Sale.

I get that part. Seems like those books were sold regardless. But Taabarang claims it was some school officials who sold the books to the market vendors. I'm just asking if possibly those books were given out to students, and the students or their families sold them.

Soi Dog wrote:

Username Taken wrote:

Soi Dog wrote:It sounds like at least some NGOs are trying to do their bit to help education in Cambodia by providing the textbooks. Is it certain it was some greedy government lackey who sold those textbooks to the market vendor, or could it have been some student's families who sold them? Just asking.

You can buy those books at any roadside bookseller (outside any govt school). If you can read Khmer, it clearly says on them that they are Not For Sale.

I get that part. Seems like those books were sold regardless. But Taabarang claims it was some school officials who sold the books to the market vendors. I'm just asking if possibly those books were given out to students, and the students or their families sold them.

My understanding is that the kids never see them, unless an NGO wants a photo op of them being handed out, and the kids know that once the cameras are gone they'll be collected back up. I've heard this from a couple of voices now, but take it as you find it.

I should also state that I know of one or two legitimate NGOs that are doing everything in their capacity to build schools and put books in the hands of kids who need them.

Username Taken wrote:

Soi Dog wrote:It sounds like at least some NGOs are trying to do their bit to help education in Cambodia by providing the textbooks. Is it certain it was some greedy government lackey who sold those textbooks to the market vendor, or could it have been some student's families who sold them? Just asking.

You can buy those books at any roadside bookseller (outside any govt school). If you can read Khmer, it clearly says on them that they are Not For Sale.

It was in the past, we had this problem. Now they are not allowed to sale the books from govt " Not For Sale" on the market.