Bringing classrooms closer to home

Banteay Meanchey Province – Soy Pheap, a mother of seven children, recalled making a tough decision several years ago when one of her daughters began secondary school. Because her village in Banteay Meanchey province lacked classrooms, she had to send her daughter to live with her grandmother in Battambang province, 130 kilometres away, so that she can continue her study.

But the 39-year-old woman doesn’t need to make such a choice anymore for her other daughter.
 
“The new school is quite near to my house now, so I will just send her to study there instead of to Battembang,” said Soy Pheap, who lives in Tuol Pongro commune, Banteay Meanchey province in northwestern Cambodia.

Hope among the local children to pursue an education has finally been restored after the newly-built Tuol Pongro Secondary School opened its doors in January 2011.

In the past, many of them, after completing primary school, were compelled to make the two-way eight-kilometer trip daily to attend secondary school in another commune. Some simply dropped out all together to herd cattle or work in the rice field with their parents.

Responding to the plight of the children, local officials began planning to build a new school.

Kim Morn, the Tuol Pongro commune chief, first managed to secure allocation of a piece of land after it had been cleared of land mines. But instead of going it alone, he decided to team up with councilors in the neighboring O Sampor commune in the project.

“When we knew that there was fund available from the Inter-Commune Cooperation, our two communes worked together to request for the fund. Then we got it,” said Kim Morn.

The Inter-Commune Cooperation (ICC) is a pilot project supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It works to set up a mechanism to encourage commune councils, which normally have a limited budget, to work together on prioritizing development plans that can bring the most benefits to their communities.

The joint proposal from the two communes awarded them US$37,820 from the ICC fund. They also collected an additional US$300 in contributions from the villagers. But the total amount was enough for building only four classrooms whilst they needed 10 classrooms. So both communes had to raise more money.

The ICC project requires a transparent bidding process as a main criterion for awarding funds for projects. The two communes had met the requirements, which subsequently enabled them to attract Cambodia Mines-remove Campaign (CMC), a Japanese humanitarian de-mining group, to share an additional US$70,000 to complete construction of the school.

“Local councils in Cambodia are still weak administratively and financially, so it will be a greater benefit to their communities if they can work together like this one,” said Hiroshi Ake, Country Director of CMC.

Cambodian students study in class at Tuol Pongor Secondary School in Banteay Meanchey province, in May 2011. The school was built partly with funds from the ICC project, which is supported by the UNDP and the EU. (UNDP/Chansok Lay)

He said his group decided to support the initiative due to the level of trust and transparent bidding process demonstrated by the two communes in planning the project.

In January this year, the school opened its doors and since then, some 170 boys and girls have enrolled. Local officials said the school will take in up to 200 more students from the surrounding villages when the 2011-2012 academic year starts in September.

Prum Sokheng, a 21-year-old woman, had to drop out of school when she was in the 8th grade because the secondary school she was attending was far from her home – eight kilometers away. Every day, she spent up to one hour cycling on a dirt track to and from the school. But when it rained, the road became slippery and impassible. It was too much for her to endure so she stopped going to school in 2007.

“I wish the school had been here. I would not have stopped studying if there was one closer to home,” Phum Sokheng said whilst watching children play in the new school’s compound.

While regretting her misfortune, she said she was very happy that her brother does not have to experience a similar fate and that he now can just attend the new Tuol Pongro secondary school like other children.

In addition to Khmer lessons, the students also learn English to prepare themselves for a brighter future.

“Duck, buffalo, cow, farm, farmers, cat, bird,” a female student reads the words aloud while her classmates repeat in chorus after her in a dairy farm lesson.

For Kim Morn, the Tuol Pongro commune chief, his mission is not over yet. He plans to raise more funds to build a high school building in the commune so that students can continue their studies beyond the nine years of basic education as stated in the national policies.

The ICC is a component of the “Strengthening Democratic and Decentralized Local Governance” project which has been jointly funded by the EU and the UNDP since 2006. It has been implemented in 54 out of 171 districts. The government has selected those districts because they are in greater needs for pro-poor infrastructure and service delivery. Seeing the benefits the ICC mechanism has brought, the government is now considering integrating the ICC in its national policies for local governance.

“The fact that the government is willing to integrate ICC in its national polices is a very encouraging. This could definitely help further strengthen the ability of local governments to improve services where they are needed the most,” said Patrick Duong, the DDLG project coordinator.

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