Check this school: An education success story in Cambodia

By San Chey

O'Chrey primary school is a school in Ochrey Village, Baraing Thleak commune, Phnom Prik district, Battambang province in northwest Cambodia. It was established in 2006 by villagers themselves who decided they must act if they wanted their children to have some formal education. The school was recognized by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport six years later, or in 2012.

Photo courtesy of KIND Cambodia

The structure used to be a storage house for corn, measuring only 6 meters by 5 meters. Its rooms were made of wood and its roof, of Zinc. It stood under a tree, near a farm. It did not have walls. There were two classrooms standing on the community-owned land.

Enrollment continued to increase despite these conditions. For the academic year 2013-2014, there were 175 students. For 2014-2015 , the number could increase to 219. But school principal Mr. Pot Saroeun said there were only three teachers, two of whom are contracted. Worse, one of these two will resign because of the low salary that could not support her living condition.

Taking CMS Public: Accountability & Constructive Engagement

This piece is a slightly edited version of a speech that Executive Director Dondon Parafina delivered during the Checkmyschool.org’s public presentation, held 15 April 2013 in Manila, Philippines.

Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of ANSA East Asia & Pacific, I welcome you to this event, where the Checkmyschool (CMS) team will present to the bigger public the results of its undertakings in the last 12 months. They will share with us the accomplishments and lessons of efforts to advance transparency and social accountability (SAc) in various public schools in the country.

ANSA-EAP is very fortunate to have the opportunity to incubate the CMS initiative since 2010. As a regional platform for SAc networking and learning, it has seen the value of utilizing ICT for transparency and SAc work. There are still very few initiatives of this type and I really hope that the experiences of CMS are providing good lessons to inspire more groups to follow.