Vision from the Top

In 2017, PeopleStories has made a conscious decision to actively work with the government schools in order to drive systemic and enduring changes that help as many students as possible. We are fortunate to have the kind support from the Director of the Department of Education, Youth and Sports in the Bakong District, Mr Reangsey. 

As schools just reopened in Cambodia, I wanted to hear more about Director Reangsey’s vision for the rural schools, the students, the teachers and also the challenges they are facing in uplifting education in poor rural areas. ​

Everything starts with a vision! For rural schools, this means to have good infrastructure in place enabling students to learn safely and happily. This may well include setting up pilot STEM classes and helping teachers to adapt to new technology and new ways of teaching.  It would be a significant achievement for rural area to cover a large number of schools and running these programs with limited funds. 

The vision for the rural schools goes hand in hand with future skills required by students. Director Reangsey sees these primarily around communication, leadership as well as IT and foreign language skills including English, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. Interestingly, he also strongly believes in balancing these with vocational skills such as agriculture, farming, engineering and electronic skills. 

Director Reangsey also shared that achieving their vision is quite challenging. Poor families are faced with the tough choice of sending their children to work or allowing them to go to school. Likewise, there are legacy issues with regards to teachers and a generation of educators who were killed under the Khmer Rouge regime. Teaching, as a profession, needs to be re-established and experience built up again over years. 

I asked a fun and sometimes challenging question “What would you do if you had unlimited resources and budgets to drive change?” 

Director Reangsey highlighted improving school infrastructure including buildings and internet access. What I thought was more surprising is the fact that he would also look to introduce consistent evaluation testing in order to identify and help slow learners as well as teachers who are not up to professional teaching standard.  This could be a pretty confrontational but rewarding move!  Some of the results already speak for themselves. The Hun Sen Bakong High School won the national award of Samdech Decho for the top grade of good directors! 

As someone who has been through very tough times including civil war, Director Reangsey’s dreams are very real and grounded. He still continues with this dream and wants to see all children come to school, finish school and have good knowledge to offer them choices to make a happy living for themselves, their families and communities.  

​Slowly, but surely, Director Reangsey has taken steps to improve the education for the students in the rural regions.  You can play a part too by donating to this new school year scholarships - 100 Dreams for 100 students. ​​​