Education
90% of students in Cambodia do not reach the baseline level of performance in mathematics
The 25% most disadvantaged students in Cambodia are more than 3 times more likely to perform below the baseline in all subjects.
220,000 school-aged children in Cambodia are out of school.
Prevention
Community Kindergartens
In Cambodia, kindergarten is not mandatory. This project gives children living in remote areas access to education before the age of 6 years old.
Damnok Toek works with the local authorities in Neak Loeung and Poipet to identify at-risk children under 5 years old and provide them with kindergarten education.
The project takes a three-step approach aimed at empowering the community by gradually turning over ownership and control of the kindergartens to local authorities over a three-year period.
During the first year, DT supports the kindergarten’s construction, purchases materials, organizes teacher training, and covers the salary and cost of transportation for the teacher.
During the second year, DT provides refresher training for teachers to sustain the quality of education. In addition, DT covers 50% of the teacher’s salary with the other 50% now being paid by the commune council.
In the third year, the entire operation is handed over to the commune council with DT continuing to provide refresher training courses.
Protection
Education is essential to setting children up for success. Although enrollment rates are high in Cambodia, so too are dropout rates.
Distance from home to school, unreliable transportation, and the necessity to work to help the family are all common causes of high dropout rates.
To ensure children stay in school our social workers are in close collaboration with our NFE teachers as well as public school teachers to monitor students’ attendance. If a student misses three consecutive days of classes, a social worker will conduct a home visit to assess what can be done to assist the child in coming back to school.
Rehabilitation
NFE provides access to education in Cambodia for vulnerable children who are not able to attend public school in Neak Loeung and Poipet. Often, this is due to their families’ socio-economic circumstances. By providing NFE, Damnok Toek helps to ensure vulnerable children receive an education and mitigate the risk of these children becoming victims of exploitation, trafficking, and abuse.
Our teachers use creative, child-focused, and both non-formal and formal educational methodologies to support the children to continue their education and reduce drop-out rates.
Children from the community are tested to evaluate their literacy and numeracy levels determining their grade equivalency. In classes, children learn subjects based on the Cambodian school curriculum as well as life skills such as hygiene, reproductive health, children’s rights, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
Reintegration
Once children are ready, they are supported in the reintegration process into the public school system. During this process, students receive continued support from Damnok Toek. We ensure they are registered and have uniforms, books, stationery, and study materials. Social workers are a key component of this project. Their roles extend into follow-up with reintegrated cases while also providing counselling for children and their families if required.
Damnok Toek continues to support students with school materials for as long as they continue their education.
