Although my time in Cambodia has mostly been wonderful (always have some hiccups within life, but overall I am so happy living here) I wanted to turn to a serious topic about education in Cambodia, the overall importance of education, and the large disconnect between access to education and the large amount of students who stop studying in high school (and sometimes even in primary school).
All of this starts with my host sister. As mentionned before, she built a house next-door to mine to help kids have access to education, meaning that although their parents may work somewhere else (usually in Thailand) or live far from a high school, these students stay with us and have the ability to walk to school (we live next to the high school). This all started with her own story and experience of how she perservered through life, never gave up, and got an education despite many (many) challenges along the way, including living more than 15km from her high school and only had a bicycle to get there, including having to bike on the dirt roads during the rainy season -> dirt+ rain =mud and stuck bikes). At first, I saw her having this home as a kind gesture to not have students have to repeat what she went through and to encourage the kids to learn and make sure they study. But now I realize the importance of the house that she runs and the encouragement that comes from her to make sure these students finish their studies. Especially since over the Khmer New Year Holiday, I had the opportunity to go visit some of my students' (the ones who live with us) houses. Although some may live in nice homes, they live incredibly far from a high school. We passed many primary schools, but the further and further we drove away from our house, I did not see one high school. My sister said this is one of the many reasons why students drop out: not enough access to high schools.
Coming from the Youth Situation Analysis Report in Cambodia (December 2020) created by the National Youth Development Council in conjunction with UNICEF and other international aid groups, it states that 34% of males drop out of school between the ages of 15-19 and 36% of females drop out between the ages of 15-19. Despite reading these statistics, I have seen statistics in other places which were reflected at higher drop out rates. When I hear about these statistics but then see the schools, I think "how could this be?" Many of the high schools have over 1,000+ students and I live near two high schools (both with around that many students). But behind all of that, I hear from my host sister (who is also a teacher at the high school) that many students will get dressed to go to school, pretend to go, but then cut class. I see kids sometimes around my town who are working when it is school hours. Some students will reach certain levels at school and then decide to drop out, leading them to go find jobs in Thailand or Vietnam as laborers or go back to their hometowns and do other jobs. Some students will stop studying to get married, especially female students. Some students stop studying after primary school because a high school is too far away. And although high school is when the students are a little older, my school director at the primary school told me that at our school, out of 100 kids, 5 of them will probably stop learning to go help their parents with work, but usually at other primary schools, about 30 out of 100 kids will stop learning to help their parents or go work (this information comes from my school director and is not an official statistic).
I think though that everything hit me, especially to write about this, when speaking to someone I know. He is a high school student in grade 8, but told me yesterday about how once he takes the grade 9 exam, he will stop going to school. He helped his parents in another country until he was 4 and so he did not have a good baseline to learn how to read and write Khmer, therefore hindering his ability to further learn. His plan is to stop studying and to go to Thailand to work or to go home and work. No matter how much I tried to stress that he should keep studying, I think it is inevitable he will stop. And this breaks my heart. He is a good kid, and this decision will impact the rest of his life.
So first, reflecting on the amount of students that go to school, it is important for me to realize and reflect that when my host sister is telling the kids they need to study hard and go to school, it is because a large number of them usually end up stopping their studies. We have passed by too many people in the town where she has said "they were my student but then one day they just stopped studying."
Separately, the classes at the schools are ranked (9A is the top class, 9B is second, so on and so forth...). There is a large disconnect between the top classes, with students who study super hard, go to private classes, and want to rank in the top versus the lower classes, with the students who score the lowest and always seem further behind. For example, another student at my house studies so hard, but I have been trying to help him get his math scores up (thankful I am remembering algebra and trying my best to explain it in Khmer) but he really struggles with the problems and cannot afford to get a tutor and cannot afford to go to extra class. For most students, school is only half a day, but many students pay to go to private classes to supplement their education which is basically a necessity if you want to do well in school. However, if a student/family does not have money, they cannot afford to go to the extra classes. At my house, some students pay to go to extra classes (for example a couple students go to learn Chinese at night) but others who cannot afford to go just stay home and study on their own, usually leading them to fall behind.
Going back to my host sister, she always tells me "knowledge is power." This is not the first time that I have heard this phrase, but I want to put into perspective the incredible importance of education. I have always valued my education greatly but I also want to emphasize to everyone else reading this to never take your education for granted. I personally feel grateful for the education I received, the teachers I had, and the impact it has had on my life (including coming to teach English in Cambodia). I know I just teach English at the primary school and supplement the English lessons so the teachers will still teach English once I am gone. I know that as a single volunteer, the impact I have on my community is very small (meaning it will all just be the same when I leave). But the kids I teach at the primary school, and at my house, are great kids. Many of them try their best and want to learn. The decision to drop out of school is something that affects the rest of your life and although my impact in my town is small, I now see the large impact my host stister has already had on many students to encourage them to stay in school. The importance of reading, writing, and speaking any language is powerful and please never forget the blessings you have had in your life, the education you have received, and how far you have come because of it.
This post only reflects one statistic and everything else is from my own observation and listening to my students, host sister, friends, and colleagues.
Youth Situation Analysis (2021): https://cambodia.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/2_youth_situation_analysis_report_english_version_23_august_2021_1.pdf
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