Primary Education in Cambodia
On a windy Saturday, I have been working on a presentation due to be given on change from a personal perspective, and I have chosen to talk about primary school education programs my family helped start in Cambodia (yatesweb.com/Cambodia).
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. In 3 ½ years, an estimated 1.8 million people died – 200,000 or more killed directly, and 1.6 million died of starvation. If you were a teacher, doctor, professional or lawyer, or if you wore glasses, or could speak a foreign language, or were educated ... you were classified as an enemy ... you were arrested, tortured, then killed.
The Vietnamese stopped the killing in 1979, but were ostracised by the UN for geo-political reasons as much as anything else. So the Khmer Rouge were instead seen as the official representatives of Cambodia working from their northern hideouts. After the Vietnamese left, in the early 1990's the UN arranged elections, although the Khmer Rouge refused to take part. The country remained divided.
In April 1998, Pol Pot died just north of Anlong Veng from an apparent heart attack … and his body was burned. Today, there is a tourist shrine marking his grave. But until that time very few children had even 1st grade schooling in these remote areas under Khmer Rouge control. Schooling only really became possible from 1999.
So why am I writing this, now? I do not want to be particularly reminded of the horrors, although it is always a salutory thought that genocide recurs so often. But it is uplifting to review once more the successes of education programs in the last 4 or 5 years in these remote parts of Cambodia.
People want education, and kids want to go to school. Enrolment went from 39% to 89% between 1999 and 2002 in these "reconciliation areas", and is now hovering around 95%. Grade 6 is now almost routine.
Would that we in the West were so avid on the subject. I guess you don't miss what you already have?
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. In 3 ½ years, an estimated 1.8 million people died – 200,000 or more killed directly, and 1.6 million died of starvation. If you were a teacher, doctor, professional or lawyer, or if you wore glasses, or could speak a foreign language, or were educated ... you were classified as an enemy ... you were arrested, tortured, then killed.
The Vietnamese stopped the killing in 1979, but were ostracised by the UN for geo-political reasons as much as anything else. So the Khmer Rouge were instead seen as the official representatives of Cambodia working from their northern hideouts. After the Vietnamese left, in the early 1990's the UN arranged elections, although the Khmer Rouge refused to take part. The country remained divided.
In April 1998, Pol Pot died just north of Anlong Veng from an apparent heart attack … and his body was burned. Today, there is a tourist shrine marking his grave. But until that time very few children had even 1st grade schooling in these remote areas under Khmer Rouge control. Schooling only really became possible from 1999.
So why am I writing this, now? I do not want to be particularly reminded of the horrors, although it is always a salutory thought that genocide recurs so often. But it is uplifting to review once more the successes of education programs in the last 4 or 5 years in these remote parts of Cambodia.
People want education, and kids want to go to school. Enrolment went from 39% to 89% between 1999 and 2002 in these "reconciliation areas", and is now hovering around 95%. Grade 6 is now almost routine.
Would that we in the West were so avid on the subject. I guess you don't miss what you already have?
posted by mick yates @ 6:14 PM permalink
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