The close of the 23-24 school year marked the end of an era, as the final intake to our Scholars’ Dorms in Siem Reap all passed their Grade 12 exam and moved on to tertiary education placements – and we now close the doors on this initiative.
Needless to say, this is not a decision we have taken lightly! The Siem Reap dorms are held in much affection for everyone involved in PLF’s mission – students, communities, team members, and donors alike. But while we look back with great fondness on all the fantastic kids who passed through the dorms, we are relieved to be able to turn the page on the need for residential housing for underage minors, who literally had no choice but to leave their homes and villages in pursuit of an education.
This decision is a few years in the making, and has involved much scrutiny and discussion with our field directors and community members at Knar and Srayang. As we observed the changing needs of our student demographic, and assessed the viability of maintaining the dorm project, in late 2023 we realised the time had come, and that the current residents, then moving into Grade 12, would be the last ones.
But in true PLF fashion, there is a huge silver lining to this decision.
First, let us walk you through what has prompted this inquiry:.
The Siem Reap dorms were created for the express purpose of bringing students from Srayang (when it was the Srayang Dorm) to Siem Reap to complete upper secondary school. This was in a time (2009 until 2020) when the High School at Srayang only went to Grade 9, and the only way for our Preah Vihear students to graduate Grade 12 and have any chance of applying for university, was to relocate to Siem Reap. Once the Boys’ and Girls’ dorms were established, we also started to take the strongest students from Knar, whose academic promise would not be fulfilled by their local high school.
At its height, we dormed on average 25 – 30 students every year in Siem Reap. And between 2019-2024, 92% of dorm graduates were awarded with University scholarships.
This photo shows the 2019 – 20 intake just before Covid – the year that everything changed!
Meanwhile during this period back in Srayang, the new secondary school was slowly adding new grades each year until eventually, after the Covid school reopenings, Preah Vihear students were finally able to complete high school there. During Covid, we were also re-working our strategy with the transition of Srayang dorm to our Learning Center model. This ensured that a greater number of students could come from the village primaries and access school all the way through to Grade 12 – while continuing to live at home with their families. Once that happened, there was a drastic dip in demand from students to come to Siem Reap to study, and for the 2023 school year, we had the smallest intake ever.
With fewer students making use of the dorm and its facilities, the overhead per student went up drastically – making it no longer viable. We couldn’t justify spending this much on just a handful of students, when we could be offering high school support to the much greater number who had elected to stay at home. We therefore took the decision not to admit a new intake for 2024, while honoring our commitment to the 2023 intake to stay on at the dorms through its final year to complete Grade 12 at their Siem Reap high school, which they have now done.
2023 & final intake at the Siem Reap dorm – we’re proud of this last group: they were all highly involved in PLF’s mentorship program and will continue to encourage and inspire the next generation back in their home villages.
Now for the good news!
The average yearly running cost for both dorms was a not-inconsiderable $50k, which we are now able to redirect towards supporting a much greater number of rural High School students. This is a need that we already identified in 2023, when we began laying the foundations for expanding High School scholarships for rural students, focused on those wanting to take the science track for Grade 12. Since Covid, we have seen that students are lacking in confidence to tackle these subjects, which are perceived as more academically difficult, and opting for the easier social track instead. This is exacerbated in rural areas where the caliber of teaching is not as strong as in urban centers. With Cambodia’s own development goals recognizing that the country’s future – and an individual’s best career options – lie in STEM fields (Ministry of Education, 2016) this is a trend we want to reverse.
To do this, we now offer a 2-year High School scholarship to all rural science track students – whether Srayang or Knar – with support starting in Grade 11 instead of 12. This ensures they get all the additional classes required to supplement the national curriculum, and greatly boosts their confidence in tackling science subjects.
And with our special focus on Srayang students as they navigate the new high school up there, this extra support also extends to social track students. As our work in Srayang continues to evolve, and we welcome another 22 new students from the village primaries for the 2024-25 school year, we want to give these youngsters every reason to set their sights on a high school diploma – and even beyond, on to university!
Another cohort who will benefit from these extra supports is the growing number of walk-in students coming through our doors in Siem Reap, from the urban poor demographic that has suffered greatly since Covid’s devastation on a town economically-reliant on tourism. These youngsters come from some of the worst living situations we have encountered, and are driven and determined enough to seek out assistance in completing their education in order to make a better life for themselves and their families. We want to reward that grit where we can. Our tertiary team has conducted student interviews and home visits to assess who are the most deserving, and we are thrilled to be able to award a significant number of scholarships to these students.
Join us in a trip down memory lane with of some of the dorm highlights over the years!
It is wholly fitting that saying farewell to this project enables us to extend opportunities to even more deserving students so that they can fulfil their educational potential. We look forward to sharing their stories with you!
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