Teaching in a Cambodian School

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An insight to School in Cambodia:

Pupils attend Government schools in the morning and English school in the afternoon for one hour!

The curriculum and methods I have been used to as a newly qualified teacher are unheard of, this much I expected... but I don't think I was prepared for how schools operate here.

I am in a very well established, successful school with high ambitions and keen to progress to offer more and more for the pupils, which is fantastic! We are in the process with VCDA of creating a football and volleyball playing area!

Many schools operate using textbooks which are both boring and irrelevant to Cambodian lifestyle, using names, places and aspects of lifestyle that are completely alien to a child here! However, I have not used a text book once at VCDA school.

I arrived and couldn't get over the lack of structure to lessons, there is no aim, let alone an outcome and teachers certainly do not appear to have a clue where pupils in the class are at! Books are never taken in to mark, work is not corrected and as a result some pupils just appear lost! Often DVDs are shown to help 'improve English'. This is something the pupils really enjoy but how much they understand I am not sure.

After one day I was asked to teach, as a normal teacher I asked where the pupils were at and what they were moving onto! I was told I would be told what to teach tomorrow!! I felt a mild sense of panic! Was I just expected to wing it? I said no! I wanted to plan so could they tell me the topic! The response was 'you chose' ....

So that is what I have done, taught a series of lessons over the past 4-5 weeks that I hope the children have enjoyed with clear links and progression of learning! It's been stressful and difficult to gauge what level to work at! I have had some great successes and also a few flops! But as long as I have a happy smiling class that have had the opportunity to read, write, speak and listen within our one hour lesson I am happy 😊



The children love to have their work corrected and show you what they have done, they take such pride in their work and are clearly agitated at making a mistake. They are always keen to learn new words and appreciate everything! When asked about their future every child has the same response 'to improve my English so i can get a good job and money for my family!' They have so little but yet are so happy..... If only children at home knew how lucky they really were!!



Let me paint a picture of you of the classroom environment here!

'Teacher'
No longer am I 'Miss Pearson' ... Children here call you 'teacher' lol! It is so funny!! They just shout 'teacher' if they need help and say hello and goodbye teacher everyday!

Discipline:
Students line up outside the classroom and come in and sit down quietly, right??? .... WRONG! ha!!! Not here, particularly with the younger pupils it is like a stampede entering, with many of the boys sliding across the floor in their flips flops while having some kind of war with their bags! Where most children walk to their bench, these little rascals chose to walk across the top of the tables!! This is a situation where the teacher in me stands gobsmacked! Lol!

Use of lighters:
I nearly had a fit when I ventured to the back of the classroom wondering why some children were crawling around the floor and there was smoke rising! Playing with fire and lighting incent sticks to ward off mosquitoes at 5 years old in the classroom is given the go ahead here..... Errrrr ok! Lol!

Raising your hand to answer a question:
A concept which is alien and one I have very much introduced! Often it is the smarter pupils which sit at the front and are enthusiastically answering all questions by shouting out, meanwhile the quieter students sit at the back and never speak!! The look of sheer shock when I have thrown a ball in their direction to answer a question is hilarious, but the pride when they get praise is priceless 😊

School uniform:
Children have uniform for the government schools, a white shirt and navy skirt or trousers. They take great care of it.
In the English school there is no uniform policy, I had someone comment they were 'surprised by the nice clothes the children wear'. Unfortunately the sad reality is that many children appear everyday in the same clothes. However they are no different to any other children and are obsessed with the latest craze.... Angry Birds is HUGE, the kids go mad for it, many have T-shirts or tattoos, and some even have pencils 😊

Assessment
Classes range dramatically both in age and ability!! Some classes have children aged 5-8 with a few 18 year olds scattered in there too, which makes gaging an appropriate task difficult! In these lessons some pupils can speak basic English and others cannot follow the alphabet!! These lessons in my opinion should be taught primarily in khami to ensure understanding.

Other classes have pupils aged 8-24, again there is no such thing as setting! Some pupils can write complex, descriptive paragraphs that blow me away and others struggle to understand the task! The stronger pupils are very enthusiastic about reading their work, while weaker pupils need a lot of encouragement.

Lack of walls:
Outside noise makes teaching a challenge, coping with noise of other classrooms and mosquitoes can be hard work! Good job I've got a good voice on me 😊

Khami teachers
The teachers have done a fantastic job to get where they are and I admire them for their hard work and efforts! However I have come to realise that often they can let on they understand when they really don't, and often make spelling mistakes or write in the incorrect tense.

Many have only been studying English 2-5 years, so you can appreciate how difficult a task teaching must be! Many can speak really well, but reading and particularly writing is hard, but in the khami culture they would never ask for help or say they do not understand which is why sometimes it goes unnoticed.

There is no aim or structure to most lessons ....lessons do not flow AT ALL and often teachers will ask EVERY pupil in the class (sizes 30+) to repeat a word or sentence! I feel like banging my head against the wall so I can only imagine the pupils feel the same!!!

From what I have seen there is nothing to connect between different tasks or series of lessons!!! I am lost and cannot understand the purpose or the point of some tasks so not a wonder the students are looking clueless too!!! My favourite was a whole hour on 'what is technology?' And 'what can a computer do?' I was completely put on the spot ... 'Rachel explain to the class what is technology?' I was baffled, technology isn't exactly my strong point, but with no specific direction where to start!? Eeeerrrr!!

Pictures are a positive way to connect to English words! However, at times the importance of the English word is completely lost as both teachers and pupils get wrapped up in drawing!

Interactivity
Quite often pupils enter the classroom and stay on their hard bench for the whole hour! There is little interactive learning, as classrooms are so small there is nowhere to move to even sit in a circle! I have tried to get as many as pupils as possible up to write on the board, playing games such as hangman or creating crosswords or wordsearches.

Rain
As the school is set in the country, when it rains many pupils are unable to get to school as it is so heavy with big thunderstorms that country areas flood! It is an excuse to go out and dance in the rain .... Literally!! Many people play in the puddles!



Leaving in the dark
What I find odd is the evening class is the youngest pupils, aged 5. It is pitch dark when we leave along a country dirt track with no light. Pupils are not collected from school but walk home alone in the dark, I would have been petrified at that age!!

Laughing, smiling, singing, playing, art!
There is so much of the above, even on a day off pupils come into school! A new football project is being set up to allow pupils the opportunity to play football for the school team! So far we have had both boys and girls sign up!!! There is no shortage of enthusiasm, laughter and smiling!!! Children play games in the yard similar to that of dodgeball with a small toy! They love skipping ropes! The artistic flare of the pupils is fantastic and many enjoy art lessons with Malyvan the schools exceptionally talented art teacher!



I know it may sound like I am painting a negative picture, that is not my intention! I think the stark comparison between education at home and here is one which is shocking and hard to accept! Particularly when at home there are many teachers and pupils who do not appreciate what they have, then you compare it to here and how well they do so well off very little money, training and resources!

Teachers and pupils do their best here but have a lot to learn about how to improve teaching methods and structure of lessons. Many volunteers come and offer help, some for short periods others for much longer! It would be great to see how much the school will progress and improve even in the next ten years! Anyone considering volunteering I would strongly urge to to!

What a worthwhile and valuable experience to open your eyes to the real world! I am powerless to change the world, but I have done my best to throw myself into these 5 weeks and make a lasting impression on the pupils, through enthusiasm if nothing else!

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