IBEC & Student Associations

The government guidelines are that all Secondary & High schools should have a Student Association(SA) however it is not mandatory and so therefore it is not always encouraged. The SA’s are groups of students who are involved in the way that the school is run and they can, independently from the school, apply for grants for improvements to their schools – so they get the kids involved in their own education and build on their confidence but also they get an introduction to and familiarity with democratic systems and learn useful life skills.  

This school I went to visit – Lvea High School in the Prey Chlor District – was great. The Leader of the school(equilvlant to a Headmaster in the UK) was so good and inspirational – this is not always the case. He was so proud of his school but more importantly his students – he had over 800 students that attend the school from the age of around 12 years old. This school is lucky and gets aid from 3 different donors: USAID, KAPE and BSDA. 

Even though it is school holiday time I met with the Leader and 3 other teachers and also 5 of the students from the SA came in to meet me and show me around.  

Thanks to USAID they have a computer room with around 15 computers in – not many when you consider the amount of students but better than none at all. 

The students were also very proud of their library which was full of books to help them learn. The SA had also set up a system to monitor who use the library. They had tins by the door with each year name on it and 2 per year, 1 for male students and the other for female. Every time a student entered the library they were to pick a piece of gravel up from outside and place it in the relevant tin. The SA wanted to set this up so that they could encourage the students that weren’t using the library that much. 

BSDA, through NAMSA(Network of A ffliated Monks for Social Accountability) help the students with running their SA – they teach them about leadership, voting, school & government procedures etc  

Head teacher, students and 2 of the monks from BSDA

Greenhouse nursery

The Leader of the school wanted the children to learn all about the medicinal qualities of plants in Cambodia - a lot of this kind of knowledge that would normally pass down the generations has been lost due to the Khmer Rouge times. The same is with traditional dancing - this was disapproved of by the Khmer Rouge and so the knowledge of it disappeared, but many people are now trying to teach the younger generation the traditions of the past.

SA's Fish pond

This is the fish pond that the Student Association put in to help all the kids learn a skill to take home with them.