CLIP2 quarterly report: January to March 2022

Project Overview

There are 3 main objectives of this project:

1. to create/prepare/distribute teacher resources for preschool teachers.
2. to install technical equipment (Access Boxes) in schools to store teacher resources for preschools; and
3. to train teachers on the use of the Access Boxes as well as how to upload and download resources.

There are two main beneficiary types:

1. the preschool teachers; and
2. the preschool students.

Background: This project will take place in the Pursat Province of Cambodia. It will be providing Early Childhood Education (preschool) support to rural schools in the Pursat area. Cambodia is still catching up after the total dissemination of its education system during the Civil War (Khmer Rouge). Recently the government has legislated that Early Childhood Education (preschool) be compulsory. There are not enough resources for teachers and many are struggling with what to do with so many children in their classrooms.

Rermork for Children (in conjunction with TukTuk Charity) has been creating resources for preschools and has been successful at delivering resources via their digital library which is available on the internet and the "Access Box" (computer device that acts as a WIFI so teachers download resources without being connected to the internet) and training teachers how to access, upload and download resources.

Participants

Provincial Office of Education (POE)

5 officers

• Director
• Department of early childhood education
• Department of primary education
• Department of education audit
• Department of plan

District Office of Education (DOE)

8 officers (the director and the director of dept. early childhood education of each district)

• Pursat city
• Kandieng district
• Bakan district
• Krakor district

Target Schools

10 principals and 14 preschool teachers (2 principals are counted as a preschool teacher too)

*1 The school that was independent of the primary school.

*2 Managed by the commune and the schools were built by Rotary Club of Pursat.

Project Implementation

Detailed Activity Report

Training teachers how to access and use the resources

The purpose of the 1st workshop is to introduce the resource packages ‘Jack the Giant’ and ‘Happy Khmer New Year’, to provide 1 computer to each school, and computer training including access to the Digital Library. In addition to the 14 teachers, the director of the dept. early childhood education of POE/DOE and a member of the Rotary Club of Pursat (RCP) participated.

We demonstrated storytelling with Kamishibai, dancing with music, an activity game, and a printable game. Although the teachers got a lot of value from the workshop, in the post workshop survey, most teachers were not clear on how to use the computer and felt that they needed further training. Thus, we implemented supplementary training for the teachers in the follow-up visits (see Project field visits).

Conduct project kick off meeting and annual update meetings with PoE and 3 districts

A total of 31 participants from the target departments of POE, DOE, principals and preschool teachers of the 10 target schools attended the meeting on the 14th of January. The aim of the meeting was to make all participants know about CLIP2 and to sign an MoU. Also, a discussion of problems in each preschool by all attendants was planned as the teachers don’t have so many opportunities to make the officers, especially the POE, know about their challenges (see the meeting minutes).

The principals and preschool teachers raised issues, for example;

• Insufficient teaching experience,
• Capacity and teaching materials including school equipment,
• Outside play equipment,
• Storybooks, colored pencils, toys, and laminators.

There were additional challenges in management with too many students in a class and mixed-age classes and a request to set up a class for disabled students.

In response to the opinions, one director of DOE requested primary school principals to make an effort to divide the school budget into preschool classes. She also suggested that the teachers try to prepare more teaching materials by themselves little by little and not to be shy to ask partners or officers if they need some help.

Hardware purchases

We purchased 7 tablets, 5 cabinets, 6 laminators, 13 laminate sheets (A4, A3), and 500 colored pencil packages. The cabinets and speakers that were bought in CLIP1 but couldn’t be supplied to the target schools due to COVID regulations were placed in the 5 schools. Also, 415 colored pencil packages were distributed to the target 13 classes. The remaining 85 color pencil packages will be distributed next year to bolster up stock.

The tablets will be provided in the 3rd workshop in July and the laminators and laminate sheets in the 4th workshop planned this September.

Project field visits

After the 1st workshop, we visited the 10 schools to interview the teachers about the intended and frequent use of computers and the Digital Library. In addition, we conducted a follow-up for using the computer and connecting their printers and speakers.

8 of the 10 schools had been using the teaching resources in the Digital Library folder and showed animations and music (MP4) mainly. Most teachers said they were not confident to use the computer because of lack of experience but they have been practicing using it by themselves. Some teachers had been trying to make original worksheets with our worksheets, lesson plans and other administered documents.

RCP invited 4 target teachers of Kandieng school and Kaev Chey school, to a RCP supported computer class. The teachers will start after Khmer New Year in April.

Tram Pair school, the community school, has not been able to connect the printer to the computer because the principal keeps the printer at his house due to security concerns. Currently, the preschool teacher travels to his house, about 10 km from her house, every three days to print 100 sheets each time. If she prints the worksheets at a copy shop, it will cost R20,000, ($5USD), per time which is a large cost for a Cambodian teacher and the additional travel is also a burden. Moreover, the principal can not use the printer himself and needs his son to support. RCP talked about this issue with the director of DOE Bakan, and he understands the low security around the school and also thinks the specs of the printer are too low to print a lot of worksheets considering the school’s budget.

RCP and Rermork for Children Organization (R4C) interviewed the preschool teacher to clarify the situation. We asked her to talk with the principal and the commune if they can find some solutions for the issue. She said she would ask the students’ parents to support payment for printing or purchasing a printer.

Other activities

Resource package creation

We will create 4 new resource packages during two years of the project with 2 packages scheduled for completion in the first year. In this quarter, we have been working on the first storybook named ‘Being Good’.

Information dissemination via social media

We run three open social media (Facebook, Telegram and YouTube) to share the teaching resources for preschool teachers and parents.

Facebook

• Those posts include daily activity reports, songs, worksheets, workshop videos.

*Reach…The number of people who saw any content from the Page or about our Page, including posts, stories, ads, social information from people who interact with our Page and more. Reach is different from impressions, which may include multiple views of the posts by the same people. This metric is estimated.

Telegram (messaging app)

• In February, a public channel that not only the target teachers but also other teachers and parents who live in the whole nation can join in was created. You can see the R4C’s teaching resources such as storybooks, music, worksheet, etc. in it daily. And other information related to education for preschool children is posted. As of March, 56 members have joined.

YouTube

• 1 video has exceeded more than 3,700 views.

Measuring Success

Next Schedule (April – June 2022)

• Complete resource creation of the book ‘Being Good’.
• Create additional resources for the resource packages of ‘Who Painted the Sky?’ and ‘Teeny Tiny Monsters’ to use in the 2nd workshop.
• Conduct the 2nd workshop in May.
• Conduct follow-up visits after the 2nd workshop.
• Install AccessBoxes to the target schools.