SUCCESS & INNOVATION

Koh Kreusna Primary School, which is one of the CO-SAVED’s target schools in Kampong Trach district, is 37.5 km away from Provincial Office of Education, Youth and Sport of Kampot. The school consists of a six-room building with six teachers and 130 students who are the coastal fishermen’s children. Mrs. Ton Sokunthea, the director and teacher of Koh Kreusna Primary School, has been very happy with the school development achievements, especially the capacity of her teachers, librarian and school management committee has been improved after the project provided trainings.

Before the CO-SAVED project came to intervene, Koh Kreusna Primary School had many shortcomings including no good environment, inadequate teaching and learning materials. The teachers had to use their own creativity to use papers to draw and write, but those materials did not last long, be perishable and spent more money. ​The model of teaching and leading school was traditionally carried out. There was no a real system to monitor or prevent dropouts. There was no a sanitized place for children to wash their hands. The classrooms were not attractive or organized based on Child Friendly School. For fundraising in the community was still limited because the school management committee did not have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The dissemination of children's educational information school to parents and parents to school was not comprehensive. When children went out to play during their breaks, it was difficult to find a good place to play and relax because the school environment did not consist of ornamental flower gardens, no biogarden and playgrounds. These difficulties motivated the director to seek all means of support from outside the school.

After KAPE's CO-SAVED project intervening at Koh Kreushna Primary School for the past two years, this school has been changing its face and increasingly developed. The good school relationships and leadership of the director, especially relationship with the District Office of Education, Youth and Sport, the school has persuaded development partners, KAPE, through the CO-SAVED project. The project has been providing technical assistance and funding for school development since 2021. The project has helped to improve the school environment, the classroom decorations, teaching materials, improving sanitary facilities, hand-washing basin, especially the trainings to strengthen the teachers’ capacity to teach struggling students and students who challenge dropouts. The activity to help struggling students and the students who fail studies is very important. This is the core project activity to encourage the students not to drop out of school, but to enjoy their teachers and beautiful classrooms. The average of those students’ study results has improved compared to the time before the project was not here. They can now continue to higher Grades. In 2023, Koh Kreusna Primary School has received 2,800,000 Riels of the school development budget from the project to plus school budget of 2,650,000 Riels for improving the environment, decorating classrooms according to the Child Friendly School and producing teaching materials of each subject. The project also provides training to school management committees, director, and student council.

“I am very happy that KAPE's project has contributed to the school in order to succeed school development work. Next year, we plan to decorate the school office, construct a biogarden and a playground. I have a message that making children like coming to school regularly, it is required all the teachers come to teach regularly, respect the time in and out, especially the teachers must have attractive teaching materials. For the classrooms, they must arrange it in an orderly and beautiful way which’s called Child Friendly School and motivating the teacher to teach students. I would request KAPE to help train my teachers to develop new skills,” Mrs. Ton Sokunthea said.

Despite the short-term involvement of the project in the school development process, the CO-SAVED project has really brought about changes in teaching and learning methods, the school environment, the classroom decorations, sanitation, hand washing basins, and more at Koh Kreusna Primary School. These are responding to the local children’s basic need level. The teachers have learned experiences and new knowledge from the project implementation.

“The CO-SAVED project has made a lot of progress in my school, such as decorating classrooms, retraining students, and improving the school environment. In addition, the project provides training on early warning systems, walking to teach children in the village, and monitoring teachers and students in the backyard. "This project has helped my school to be good, but I would like the project to continue to help other schools," said Mr. Kang Vit, the Grade 6 teacher, shen the time break bells.

“I am very happy because my classroom consists of beautiful environment, good preparations, Khmer vowel and consonant posters, free rubbish, orderliness, and flower garden in front of the class. The school campus now looks clean, green grasses, bicycle orderliness and teachers take care of teaching students,” said Meng Chou, President of the student council, studies at Grade 4 of Kreusna Primary School.

The CO-SAVED project is implemented by KAPE in collaboration with Aide et Action with financial support from the European Union. CO-SAVED provides training for teachers, school directors, librarians, parent meetings, school management committees, Early Warning System, materials, scholarships, school building renovations, libraries, technical support, school development budgets, constructing community preschools, toilet renovations, and set up hand washing facilities, improved access to the fishermen’s children education in the project by implementing key activities, increasing enrollment and improving the quality of primary education for children in the areas, and increasing enrollment and strengthening quality of secondary education for secondary students as well. The school development budget has eased the burden of Koh Kreusna Primary School to lead and manage the children’s and youth’s education to achieve better results.