SUCCESS & INNOVATION

Boeung Priv lower Secondary School is one of the project target schools in Boeung Priv commune, Sre Ambil district, Koh Kong province where is a good place for Mr. Um Sarun to undertake a permanent position as the school secretary and become shift roles as career counselor with key responsibility working in school level. It is the rural school which takes 5 kilometers from the District Office of Education, Youth and Sport of Sre Ambil and consisting of 306 students in the academic year 2022-2023. Under the COSAVED technical intervention to lower secondary, It has been set up Trey Visay App for three years to make students easily access to identify and improve personal career development growth after graduating secondary school.  Application allows both community and schools to work together to improve students’ studies and identify future directions. It gives parents better ways to keep their children in touch and help them make a decision to continue till Grade 9, Grade 12 or go on to universities or they go early to seek jobs. Particularly, they can use their times preciously to study and do the research after school hours. Mr. Um Sarun is so happy to be in charge of teaching students the Trey Visay App due to his students have improved attitude since the application has been set up in this school.

Before setting up this App, his students come to study without clear goals or determination because they follow their parent perspectives to just go to school daily​ and habitually. The school did not promote students’ public speaking goal. The students did not know what they exactly studied for? Here, most of them were farmers’ children who used less smart phones. Normally, they did not know where and what they chose skills to learn during they were at school and homes. No more than the lessons and exercises given by the teachers, they have no other ideas to improve their studies and future careers. Every day, they came to school to sit down and wrote down lessons the teachers lecturing until the ending class time comes, they went back home. They did not understand each other well and had less friendliness and solidarity. At the beginning of two or three months of the new academic year to set up Trey Visay App, the students didn’t feel interested in this new application even though Mr. Sarun tried to explain about usefulness in their studies and the importance of presentation to choose specific goal that would react in life-learning. The application is also new for Mr. Sarun to teach students. By that time, the school management committee did not involve in school activities a lot that made school difficult to train them the application. The App was not widely promoted by the school because no technical support.

After Trey Visay’s been set up at Boeung Priv lower secondary school, Mr. Sarun has involved in the project to gain trainings on using application and capacity counselling approaches to student. The students get more awareness of where they are? What they should change to improve their studies and set up their goals with real commitment. They are also based on their parents to help them correctly decide to study just Grade 9 or continue to Grade 12. Some of them want to continue to study at universities and some want to seek jobs to do by the reason that their families stay behind them to do so. The students now become more diligent to study hard the subjects that they are poor at. About 70% of them now know how to choose their correct skills such as teacher of Mathematics, Architecture, …etc. “Nowadays, they always come to discuss with me to consider about school subjects, future careers and other related problems. They become braver than the past if I compare their attitudes having changed a lot. A student, whom I counsel with, want to become the teacher of Mathematic and prepare what to do from now on. I’m very happy to see his change,” said Mr. Sarun in smiling and motivated face in front of his class.

Trey Visay is an offline application for smartphone and tablet, developed to assist students from grade 9 to 12 in self-assessment on study and career options so that they are able to plan their further education and future career choice properly. Trey Visay provides proper option on career pathways through the following key functions: career assessment/Holland test, multiple intelligence test, training institution information, career information, exposure video of variety of careers, and information from the job center.

To succeed the career counseling via Trey Visay to his students at school, Mr. Sarun has tried to meet student parents face-to-face at homes to discuss and explain about their children education where they want their children to continue Grade 9 or just Grade 12 in order to easily seeks jobs to do in the future. After more than a year of using Trey Visay, the students could identify their future skills. Mr. Sarun remains his responsibility to teach students Trey Visay from Grade 8 to 9 and so on even if the CO-SAVED project ends. The parents are invited to attend the school meeting to help spread the Trey Visay App to other students to set clear goals in life. The students are appointed to have counseled at the right time after their class subjects to improve setting up goals; however, others who don’t understand clearly are proposed to come for counselling again next time. The school sets time for students to bring their smart phones for e-career counselling sessions. About 70% of 100 students who are targeted in this school receive career counselling via Trey Visay App. They now understand each other better than the past that can bring them friendliness and solidarity. Most of them want to be teachers and public servants.

“I’m very pleased to see my students change more than the past such as cleaning school environment, respecting internal rules, good study results and their attitudes as well. They become aware of what they start to do daily for their classes and school campus. My colleague named Um Sarun who teaches Trey Visay also improves his e-counselling skill,” said Mr. Sin Lyn, the director of Beung Priv lower secondary school standing with happy face in front of his school office.

The COSAVED project has been implemented by KAPE with cooperation with BSDA to help support target schools in Sre Ambel district to use Trey Visay App for educating students. After teaching students, the application, Mr. Sarun has improved his e-career counselling skill and learnt more real things from his students.

The proactive approaches were promoted to use Trey Visay app. Valuably, the parents importantly utilize, assist and sharp their child performances to set up clear goal of pursuing journey ways to upgrade education. Despite the school resources are still limited, but the school director is trying budget to build computer lab at his school to provide student with practicing space. Indispensably, the local people in the community and education stakeholders are producing effectiveness. Trey visay is a good tool to build personal perspective growth and self-capacity to choose career development that is satisfied. Not only ending that, but the students are also happy to peer to peer learning at school and home. They make increasing ways to learn new things and importantly value App to grow real capacity and pursue good education.