Cambodia’s kids; Cambodia’s future
Our club has led many projects in Cambodia over the years. In the last 7 years, we have focused on Early Childhood Education projects in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Pursat. Cambodia is currently rebuilding its education system, especially in early childhood education, which was severely impacted by the 1970s civil war. Key challenges include a lack of Khmer-language teaching resources, teachers' limited computer skills for resource creation, and insufficient experience in effective teaching techniques and online research. Additionally, expensive Khmer resources often don't align with the curriculum, posing affordability issues for rural schools with minimal budgets for preschool teachers.
Our club has led many projects in Cambodia over the years. In the last 7 years, we have focused on Early Childhood Education projects in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Pursat. Cambodia is currently rebuilding its education system, especially in early childhood education, which was severely impacted by the 1970s civil war. Key challenges include a lack of Khmer-language teaching resources, teachers' limited computer skills for resource creation, and insufficient experience in effective teaching techniques and online research. Additionally, expensive Khmer resources often don't align with the curriculum, posing affordability issues for rural schools with minimal budgets for preschool teachers.
Our latest project, CLIP 3, with the support of 5Calgary Rotary clubs (Chinook, Centennial, East, Stampede Park, West and ourselves) has a widespread impact due to the sharing of resources on the internet. CLIP 3 won the Basic Education & Literacy Rotary Action Group (BELRAG) award for 2024! The project includes 15 partner schools with 26 ECL classes across five regions. This initiative aims to empower teachers, parents, and communities over a two-year period, facilitated by collaboration with local education departments and the Rotary Club of Pursat (RCP).
Manon Mitchell
CLIP3 Areas of Focus
These are the areas of focus that are supporting teachers and providing exciting learning opportunities for the children:
1. Create teaching resources (storybooks, songs, activity games, board games, worksheets, etc.) in Khmer language, using local Cambodian artists. Aligning the government curriculum and Cambodian culture include options that require no printing or materials to remove economic boundaries. And distribute them to the target education offices and teachers.
2. Enhance the “Rermork Digital Library”, a free educational material website for preschools developed by R4C (TukTuk Charity), to make it easier to use and to enrich its contents.
3. Train teachers in seven workshops, not only on how to use the resources but also how to create their own resources. Laptops are supplied and computer skills training will be conducted by the RCP.
4. Make a platform for sharing teaching materials by uploading resources created by the teachers themselves on the "Rermork Digital Library", so that teachers nationwide can access these materials.
5. Engage education bureau staff from the targeted provinces and districts to disseminate materials to schools beyond the project scope, as well as encourage educators to share materials with parents of the children, we aim to increase access to educational materials for a wider audience beyond the project's reach.
Through this project, we aim to ultimately have the targeted educators give back what they have learned to their respective communities, becoming leaders in further enhancing early childhood education nationwide. However, it is crucial not to forget that the primary beneficiaries of this project are the children. We hope that through the lessons of the educators who have undergone the project activities, children will find school an engaging place, leading to increased attendance and nurturing them into future leaders who actively engage in all endeavors.
The project annual meeting
Before the project reached its one-year mark, we held an annual meeting, inviting all project stakeholders. A total of 64 participants attended, including education officers from province, city, and district offices as well as staff from the target area education departments, principals of target schools, and target teachers.
During the meeting, we presented the activities and outcomes for 2024 as well as the results of the project's midterm survey. For some education officers who had not participated in our regular workshops, this was their first opportunity to learn about our activities. This served as a great opportunity to garner their interest in the project’s future developments.
We also conducted group work sessions, dividing participants into groups to discuss specific topics. These topics—budget allocation, play-based learning, lesson planning, mixed-age classes, and supporting children with special needs—were based on concerns raised directly by teachers during visits to target schools. Each group was designed to include members from various positions, allowing regional education officers who might not usually exchange views to discuss directly with teachers. This provided a valuable opportunity for teachers to convey the realities of their classrooms.
In a post-meeting survey, many participants expressed that the project had provided teachers with new experiences, materials, and teaching methods that were highly beneficial.
Since there are relatively few organizations specializing in early childhood education in Pursat Province, this meeting helped draw renewed attention to TukTuk’s activities. Moreover, it provided teachers collaborating with us an opportunity to reflect on their efforts over the past year.
Accomplishments so far
CLIP3 includes the creation of four new original storybooks and their accompanying "Resource Packages". A resource package of teaching materials includes songs, activity games, board games, and worksheets related to the content of the picture book. Currently, we are in the process of creating the 11th book, which is expected to be completed in the first half of the next term. The first book “Jack the Giant” was produced as a result of a direct grant from the Rotary Club of Calgary.
Here are some current numbers demonstrating the reach of this project:
• Facebook Page: 6,390 Followers (keeps increasing by about 50-100 each month)
• Teachers’ Private FB Page: 5,656 Followers
• Telegram Channel: 3,246 Members
• YouTube Channel: 8,571 Subscribers | averages 142,000 Views per month in 2024
• Rermorq.org (Digital Library Website): 9,666 Visits | 4,651 Downloads
• Teachers’ Private FB Page: 5,656 Followers
• Telegram Channel: 3,246 Members
• YouTube Channel: 8,571 Subscribers | averages 142,000 Views per month in 2024
• Rermorq.org (Digital Library Website): 9,666 Visits | 4,651 Downloads
CLIP3 PROJECT RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS BELRAG AWARD!
Now in its second year, the CLIP3 project has reached an exciting milestone—it has been recognized by BELRAG (the Basic Education and Literacy Rotary Action Group), a global initiative of Rotary Clubs International dedicated to advancing literacy education!
This award is granted based on several key criteria:
1️ Addressing the needs of the target audience
2️ Having a broad and meaningful impact
3️ Promoting literacy activities through social media, media coverage, and events
4️ Engaging Rotary Club members in the project
5️ Aligning with the needs of the community
6️ Demonstrating effectiveness in improving literacy outcomes
1️ Addressing the needs of the target audience
2️ Having a broad and meaningful impact
3️ Promoting literacy activities through social media, media coverage, and events
4️ Engaging Rotary Club members in the project
5️ Aligning with the needs of the community
6️ Demonstrating effectiveness in improving literacy outcomes
For those of us working directly on the project, it’s not always easy to see the full impact of our efforts. However, through the growth of our social media reach, the positive feedback from target teachers and the tangible improvements in classroom learning, we recognize the significance of what we’re achieving.
Receiving this recognition from an external organization is truly rewarding, and we are excited to share this honor with our dedicated target teachers. As we move forward into 2025, we remain committed to making an even greater impact!
Manon Mitchell