As Cambodia's primary schools opened their classrooms nationwide on 1 November 2021, the Cambodia Out-of-School Children Consortium has been working behind the scenes during the last eight consecutive months of school closures in the country to ensure children's right to education and a smooth transition back to school.
Even before the pandemic, Cambodia was not on track to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on quality education. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, the World Bank estimated in 2019 that approximately 190,043 primary school-age children, or about 9% of the total, were not in school in Cambodia. Today, public education statistics and indicators from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports indicate that more than 13% of primary school age children were not in school in the 2020/21 school year.
Distance learning is not enough
While school administrators have turned to distance learning to compensate for school closures, a joint Cambodian government needs assessment released earlier this year found that only 70% of Cambodian students were able to continue learning during the school closures, with only 30% accessing online learning materials and 32% relying on paper-based materials. Of those learning, only 12% spend more than three hours a week on distance learning, compared to several hours a day in class before the pandemic.
For Cha Paulang, a public primary school teacher, the indigenous students in her Grade 1 class in Mondulkiri province, northwestern Cambodia, were largely excluded from education during school closures because of their limited knowledge of the Khmer language and the lack of educational resources in their mother tongue. Paulang's home visits, printed worksheets and radio broadcasts in minority languages were the main methods of distance learning for his students.
But this was not enough, according to Paulang, because above all, a family environment conducive to learning is essential for the continuity of education.
"During my home visits, I saw that not all children learn during school closures, as some have parents to help them at home and others do not," said Ms. Paulang, who visited 37 students a week during school closures.
Ensuring continuity in education
To ensure continuity of education during school closures, the Cambodian Consortium for Out-of-School Children distributed more than 4,000 radios to ethnic minority students in Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces, where educational content was broadcast in minority languages on local radio stations. To better equip teachers like Paulang, parents and children to adapt to distance learning methods, the Consortium has also developed a repository of online resources that are accessible and free to all. To date, 43 pieces of teacher training content and 2,344 book titles, including 572 audio books, have been developed.
Initially founded in 2014 as a four-year project, the Cambodian Out-of-School Children Consortium is now in its second phase and includes about 30 local and international nonprofit organizations led by Aide et Action in partnership with Educate a Child, a global program of the Education Above All Foundation.
Through initiatives such as providing in-kind tutoring to marginalised girls and boys, developing an accelerated learning programme or equivalency programme for older learners, supporting the integration of children with disabilities into public schools, and the development of the 'Khmer Rean Arn' (learning Khmer) and 'Khmer Library' applications - free mobile applications with reading and learning content for Cambodian children - the Cambodian Consortium has addressed the barriers that deny children their right to education.
Supporting the safe reopening of schools
Now that schools are open again, the Consortium is working to ensure that schools are a safe space for returning students, with adequate infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Youth, Education and Sports' Public Education Statistics and Indicators 2020/21, more than 60 % of primary schools in the country do not have access to water and more than 25 % do not have access to latrines. To support a safe reopening, the Consortium is renovating classrooms in dozens of schools across the country and investing in new teaching and learning materials, hand-washing stations and water filters in the early stages of school reopening.
Commenting on the announcement of the reopening of the primary schools, Dr Mary Joy Pigozzi, Executive Director of Educate A Child, said: "We, along with our partners, Aide et Action, and the Consortium, have kept our eyes on this moment that we knew would come. Now that it has arrived, we continue to work to ensure as smooth a transition as possible back to education for the children, through the rehabilitation of classrooms, the training of teachers and the provision of educational materials.
The Cambodia Out-of-School Children Consortium will get more than 116,000 out-of-school children into school in all provinces of Cambodia by 2024, so that more children can access their right to education.
