How our education centre in Samrong is dealing with the pandemic
Samrong is located in a rural province of Northwest Cambodia.
Funds raised so far: 44%
Physical access to school is difficult with the cost of transport or the number of walking hours proving dissuasive. Many children must convince their parents of the importance of education, as often the families rely on small-scale farming for income and thus their children being a part of their workforce.
Rural and disadvantaged public schools tend to have facilities in poor condition, which negatively impacts the quality of education provided. Driven by extremely low wages, there is an ingrained culture of private tuitions after school hours where teachers expect students to pay an extra fee to make up the shortfall, but this is unattainable for disadvantaged children.
The Samrong Education Centre works in conjunction with the public schooling system. The Centre provides full boarding which includes accommodation, tuition, extracurricular activities and various types of material support, to enable disadvantaged students to pursue secondary education.
In 2021, the Samrong Education Centre had a huge impact on its 65 direct children. We also estimate at least twice that number of indirect beneficiaries who are mostly siblings of the children sponsored which benefit from food distribution and are reimbursed from health spending in public hospital.
60% of all children in Grade 12 passed the Baccalaureate. Among the one who passed the baccalaureate, 100% of them are studying at university. The one who didn’t pass the Baccalaureate are all studying at vocational training centre. The studies of children who were in Grade 12 in 2021 can be seen on the left.
In the preceding years, there has been a 100% obtainment rate of the Baccalaureate. However, it was a challenging year with the persistent Covid-19 restrictions and online learning, and not all have been able to pass the Baccalaureate. Nevertheless, we are delighted that all our students are continuing their education.
‘I come from a village called “Beng” and it has been 6 years since I have been in the Samrong Centre. Today, I am in grade 12, the last year of school. My favourite subject is maths. In the future, I want to be an architect because I like drawing. I like living in the Samrong Centre. My favourite thing about it is being able to garden. I like taking care of the centre and regularly cleaning up.
I’m also in charge of hygiene in the boy’s residence where I stay! I’m very happy to share my daily routine with the other students in the centre. My favourite part of the week is when we watch films together on Saturday nights. I also like to play music during activities. I would like to sincerely thank my sponsor who gave me the opportunity to study and grow up in a good environment.’
Samrong is located in a rural province of Northwest Cambodia.
Fresh news from our education centre in Cambodia Sponsor the Samrong centre
Last week I visited Samrong, the “boarding school” which Children of the Mekong is supporting. Samrong is a village about two hours’ drive from […]