At a floating village in Cambodia, children drift away from schooling
Posted 3 September 2019 13:43 GMT
In Kbal Taol, a floating village in Battambang province's Koh Chivaing commune, most families depend on fishing for their livelihood.
Children, some from a young age, are enlisted to help their families catch fish and many drop out of school to contribute to the family trade.

Kheng Tikhea said he wanted to pursue higher education but had dropped out of school four years ago at grade 7 to fish. Tikhea, now 18-years-old, said his classes had been somewhat haphazard, with students missing school for months at a time depending on the season.

Yi Rith, 43, said only two of her six children went to school. One was in grade 7 and the other grade 12, both studying in Siem Reap under the sponsorship of a Korean organization.
My other four children don’t go to school. They scavenge — even my little 7-year-old boy.There was only a primary school locally, and “we don’t have the means to send our children to school,” she said.

Leng Kheng, Kbal Taol’s deputy village chief, said the issue was widespread in the village due to poverty.

According to figures kept by Koh Chivaing commune, Kbal Taol has a population of about 3,000, and more than 1,000 are children aged between 6 and 17.

The village is predominantly Khmer, unlike many floating villages around the country populated by ethnic minorities.

Tiv Piseth, the director of the Kbal Taol Primary School — which has two floating schoolhouses — said there were more than 500 primary school-aged children in the village but only 262 were enrolled.

Currently, he had only 10 students in grade 6 and expected few would go on to secondary school. According to Piseth, most years just two or three Kbal Taol Primary School graduates continued their schooling, and some years none did.
https://globalvoices.org/2019/09/03/at- ... schooling/

The floating life.
off to school

at school

typical small floating village

poor no-school floating village

no go school yet, go fishing