There have been unforeseen delays in starting school this year as a result of the severe floods that devastated Cambodia this Fall. But now that classes are finally in session, we want to give you an update on the changes to PEPY’s school program occurring this year.  In some ways, our programs are expanding, and in others, they are contracting.  We are now looking at our involvement in schools through an entirely new lens as reflected in the PSDP Program (Primary School Development Program). Amongst other major changes, one of our notable differences this year is a focus on making our English Program more sustainable by supporting the development of the government-mandated classes and moving our computer programs to the Junior High School. So far we have expanded this program to include five schools in greater Chanleas Dai area.

What’s up with the changes?

For the last two years PEPY has been running supplementary English and XO classes in Chanleas Dai Primary School. These hugely popular classes were taught by PEPY teachers, had fun and interactive resources donated from PEPY funds, offered comprehensive curricula and projects designed by the PEPY team as well as our partners, and endorsed classes that were constantly evolving. So why change things?

After looking long and hard at the successes and failings of the existing programs our decision came down to a few main concerns:

1. First, we learned that last year some students were actually changing schools to come to Chanleas Dai because of PEPY’s supplementary classes.  Over the vacation months, area principals expressed concern about the potential harm this was doing at their own schools.  In Cambodia, there is a required number of 55-60 students necessary for the government to designate (read: pay for) a class and government-salaried teacher for any given grade.  This means that if an area school doesn’t have enough students for a  4^th, 5^th or 6^th grade, they aren’t given a teacher to teach that grade and students must go to more distant schools.  As more students began talking of transferring to Chanleas Dai, two area schools which might have been able to register enough students were actually in danger of not reaching the required numbers.  We discussed alternative solutions, such as asking the District Office of Education (DOE) to enforce school catchment boundaries, but ultimately recognized that we respect parents’ desires to connect their children with the best available education .  We came to realize that there were alternate ways to tackle this problem, especially in view of the fact that the English programs in Chanleas Dai did not meet some of our other long term sustainability criteria.

2. As students from five primary schools filtered into the newly built Junior High School, only students from one school had actually received any English training. We had urged the DOE to provide a trained Government English Teacher in the Junior High School. Once the qualified teacher arrived, however, he was faced with the daunting challenge of teaching classes of students with completely disparate linguistic ability. While some 7^th grade students can write stories and letters in English, others have never studied a foreign language alphabet. 
3. Lastly, as you can see from our recent posts on sustainability, we’ve been spending a great deal of time discussing how to begin transitioning existing programs toward more sustainable models, which aim to exist long past PEPY’s support.  The current MoEYS policy is that foreign language classes should be included in the Grade 5 and 6 curricula. The primary syllabus is expected to include foreign languages (English or French typically) for 2 hours each week.  However, many teachers do not have the capacity, resources, or support to effectively teach English within the government-mandated curriculum.

So what do PEPY’s Supplementary Programs look like now?

More places, less classes.  We have discontinued the supplementary Computer, English, and Literacy programs at Chanleas Dai and are moving them to the Junior High School, replacing them with government class support, and incorporating them in the PSDP Program respectively. 

The XO’s have migrated to the Junior High School, where they will be used to supplement the lower secondary curriculum during student’s free time.  This means that all students in the commune have the opportunity to study with XO’s if they reach 7^th grade, which we hope will encourage retention rates not only in Chanleas Dai village but across the commune.  We made this change both for incentive reasons and also because our computer teachers felt that this resource will be better used by students in grades 7-9.  We hope to begin XO supplementary classes at the Junior High School in November when our two new computer teaching staff, from CIST, have graduated and joined our team.

PEPY’s English program now aims to train government teachers in basic English pedagogy, and provide them with the training and support that will enable them to meet government expectations. Expanding to five schools means we also now have a traveling English teacher! For the past two weeks PEPY staff member and Chanleas Dai resident, Chim Seng has been jumping onto the lime-green PEPY motorbike, carrying flashcards and teaching resources in his basket, and promoting his PEPY English classes all over the commune! At each school, Chim Seng will work side by side with government teachers, team teaching during designated English hours.  Once a week, all teachers will meet together for English language training, and planning.  Gradually, we hope that the government teachers will take a stronger role in leading the classes. The goal is that English language teaching will be able to be sustained by government teachers in the future, even after PEPY programs end.

Chim Seng has been traversing Chanleas Dai Commune for two weeks already and brings nothing but excitement and success stories with him to every planning meeting. The government teachers are enjoying this new challenge and appreciate the support that has been given. The first teacher’s meeting is this week and lead English teacher, Rith Sarakk, has planned an afternoon of lesson planning, resource creation, and phonics instruction. The hope is that the teachers can then use these very same skills in next week’s classes and the evolution of our work becomes increasingly lead by government teaching staff.  We also hope that, as this program develops, we can draw links between the English teaching skills and the teacher training being offered for Khmer Literacy education so that teachers can recognize the application of these skills across all areas of their classes.

At the Junior High School we will be offering supplementary English classes on alternating days for both beginner and higher level students.  In addition, students will have regular English classes as per the government curriculum, many of which will be taught by the new Government English Teacher, which the DOE has helped to secure this year. 

At Chanleas Dai Primary School, it certainly has not been easy to move from offering supplementary English classes each day to a two hour/week model that is within the government curriculum.  More than a few disappointed students have asked us why the English classroom is now primarily used as an office when it used to ring with the sounds of clapping hands and happy voices only so recently.  Though it has been a somewhat painful choice, we try to remind ourselves that the decision was necessary to bring a more lasting and expanded impact than localized support, which will stop when PEPY does.  While there might be a few disappointed faces at Chanleas Dai, there are now 341 happy faces, 682 clapping hands and 5 classrooms using regular child friendly schools methodology to learn English and meet government-set goals in the 5 schools from the surrounding area.  We’re excited about the changes, and look forward to seeing the progress of both teachers and students.  Stay tuned to the Team Journal for more updates!

Reminder: If any of YOU, who are reading this post, have traveled with us, or are interested in development, have any questions about our work/decisions or have ideas for how we can further improve our work, we’d be happy to hear them.  Feel free to write us an email or add comments/questions below. Remember, KEEN will provide a pair of their fabulous socks each month to someone who writes a comment on our Team Journal!  Help us generate more discussions on these topics we feel passionate about, share your ideas to help make us a better organization, and have a chance to have cool socks to keep your feet warm this winter!  Or, come help us do all of these things IN Cambodia  (where you won’t need the socks anyway, but might want their sandals!).