In today’s world, digital skills are life skills. But, as with so many other missing pieces in the Cambodian government curriculum, they are completely absent from public schools. With the cost of private computer classes being an impossible expense for families living in poverty, this creates a digital divide for disdvantaged students.
Technology opens so many doors in Cambodia. Not only does the job market increasingly demand computer skills in a country where the majority of students haven’t touched a computer before they graduate high school, but, more than that, technology opens the world of information for students.
Understanding not just how to use technology but how to leverage it to continually access new information and gain new skills leads students to an entirely different future. STEM education encourages curiosity from primary school onward to always be asking “how” and “why”; that pattern of thinking gives students a true competitive edge coming out of an education system built largely on learning by rote.
Starting in the primary grades, our technology program is a key strategy to keep students engaged in school while also preparing them for life beyond – whether that be further education, or access to meaningful, better paid jobs. As students move up through the grades, they have access to the five IT labs running at our learning centers, where expansions in our computer curriculums are ensuring essential digital skills are now reaching more disadvantaged students than ever before.
eReaders
The earliest technological encounter that PLF students have is with eReaders in our libraries. We first introduced these to primary students in 2021 at Knar Learning Center, where they have been a useful tool in building engagement in reading, especially amongst boys. With a recent donation of additional tablets, we’ve now been able to expand this initiative to all the other primary school libraries where we work, getting rural kids switched on as early as possible to technology.
Computer classes
Our MS Office curriculum was first created and taught by Ponheary’s sister Sotheara in 2014, and continues to form the base of classes offered to Grade 10-12 students at our learning centers in Chey, Knar, Srayang and Siem Reap (ULC). Certificates of completion from these classes are a requirement for students wanting to apply for a PLF university scholarship; and a crucial attachment to CVs for students launching straight in to the world of work.
The restrictions of Covid brought a turning point to these classes. With students unable to come to the labs, Sotheara took the lessons online, with pre-recorded videos for each section of the curriculum. And, as with many of the pivots that the pandemic necessitated, this proved to be a massive silver lining! We realised it was a much more efficient way for students to continue learning once they were back in the labs – they can work their way through the videos at their own speed and the teachers aren’t obliged to go at the pace of the slowest in the lab, which in turn frees them up to focus on any problem areas. This has shown to save huge amounts of time for the students, who are now faster to complete the courses – on average taking one year to complete the full MS Office curriculum instead of two before.
Since Covid, we have also expanded the IT lab at Srayang Learning Center, as well as in Siem Reap with the move from Seven Candles into the much bigger ULC lab which has space for more terminals. While at Chey we also added more computers in 2023 and expanded the lesson schedule.
These factors have really streamlined our IT offerings, and led to a strong and steady increase in certificate awards. Whereas before Covid we had a wait list for classes, we can now fully meet the needs of all PLF students. We have even been able to open up to the wider community at ULC, with around 40% of seats being filled by outside students. These are friends or relatives of PLF students, from similar backgrounds for whom the expense of computer classes is beyond their families’ means.
Google curriculum
With video lessons speeding up the completion of courses, we have also just developed an additional Google curriculum that was piloted with Grade 12 students at SLC over the last two months. While MS Office continues to be used the most at universities, Google Docs and Sheets are becoming much more prominent in the workplace. The new Google curriculum will be rolled out to the rest of our labs in the coming new school year, running alongside the MS curriculum and highlighting the differences between the two platforms.
Explore
The most recent addition to our technology offering is the exciting new Explore curriculum which runs in a second lab at Chey and is aimed at students in Grades 7-9. Explore was launched in 2023 and is our first attempt to deliver digital skills to younger students, through project-based learning. Students get to discover topics that are relevant to their government classes, while learning to navigate the internet and use online apps to hone their research skills. Each project culminates in a presentation that they give to their class, which also builds their confidence with public speaking. Students love the freedom that this class brings through self-directed learning, while appreciating how it supports their public school lessons.
In Cambodia, students in middle school are at a higher risk of dropping out, especially boys, and especially in rural areas. We believe that technology programs not only close the digital divide for disadvantaged students, but can help tremendously improve retention. If a student can complete Grade 9 but then is under pressure to drop out and help earn an income to support their families, that earning potential is at least significantly increased. But, we also see time and again that if a student successfully completes Grade 9, they are more likely to stay the distance all the way through to graduating high school.
This opens their futures up to very different paths, and alters the course of not only their own lives, but their families too.
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For as little as $10 a month, you could contribute to the ongoing education of our students. $120 goes a long way in Cambodia: that’s 5 village children on the road to education, with access to school and clean drinking water for half a year. Or a million other things, all of which coalesce into the tools needed for life to change for the better!
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