Model School

For the next two weeks the original group of volunteers who I arrived in the country with in September are back in Kampong Cham for more language lessons.

Today, we were lucky enough to be taken to visit a Child-Friendly 'Model' school which has been developing over the last 10 years or so and now provides a model for other schools in the country to follow.

It was absolutely fantastic to see active learning taking place and I observed many contrasts to the majority of schools in my district...

Instead of teacher led 'chalk and talk' methods, the teacher moves around the classroom and the children get to ask questions and take more of an active role in their learning...

Instead of bare, dirty walls, learning tools and children's work is displayed...

Instead of learning by rote the children use simple resources in order to discover for themselves...

Instead of a locked library which no-one is allowed to use in case they spoil the books, there is an outdoor library which parents and younger children can access...

The visit was almost as inspirational as it was depressing - I mean, it was encouraging to see what I consider to be a positive learning environment as this is what the schools in my district are aiming for. However, it reminded me that it takes a lot of time for schools to develop and a fair amount of funding and support to bring about these positive changes. Cambodians have had so much experience in the past with change leaving them worse off that many are fearful of new ways of doing things and prefer to stick to traditional methods.

I walked into one 'model' classroom and felt completely motivated in the ideas that sprang to mind which I could realistically take back to my district. However, walking into another classroom and my thinking would shift to how impossible the task seems at the moment. In Phnom Srok money is tight, resources scarce and teaching methodology is stuck in the dark ages!

It's not all doom and gloom though. My Khmer colleagues are perfectly capable of making the changes necessary in order to develop Child-Friendly schools and I just have to get over myself and the fact that far from being an 'educational saviour from the West', the role I play in this change is going to be really quite small. A Khmer saying is 'one step at a time' and I must value the achievements I help create however small.

An example of which was a critical thinking student activity Sarey and I modelled at a school last week. We were actually interested in collecting some student opinions on school and learning so asked a group of children different questions and the students moved to the sign which represented their response: smiley face = I agree, straight face = I sometimes agree, sad face = I don't agree and ? = I don't know. It was so alien for them to experience being asked about their opinion about something, but they soon got the hang of it. We attracted quite an audience as well!

The child-friendly school criteria is so vast that I have struggled to know where or how to start in my district, but today's Model school visit was probably one of the most useful things I've done for the last four months!