muk kampul district, Kandal province – About a month ago, a sturdy sign advertising a “school of foreign language” was nailed up outside the commune chief’s house on Koh Duch, an island well-known for its silk weavers.
These days, however, the school—where more than 30 students learn in classes that run two hours a day, six days a week—looks to be in jeopardy. The school’s English teacher has tired of the commute, which takes him about 30 minutes each way by boat and foot.
And many parents here have no interest in letting their children, especially their daughters, learn English. Parents want their children to continue with the weaving tradition—a day’s work, about one meter of cloth, earns about $4 at Phnom Penh’s Phsar Olympic.
Of commune chief Chhem Sam Ol’s four children, only one daughter studies English. Another daughter is married, a son is too young and one daughter is a weaver, he said.
Srey Pech, the 18 year-old weaver, said she does not study English because, “If I learn English, I will still weave.” Her father will not allow her to find a job in Phnom Penh because he is afraid she will be cheated, she said.
At first she was very fond of weaving, but now, “I am fond because I have no choice,” she said.
Kong Lang, 40, has one son in the English class. If she could afford to send her younger daughter to the class she would, but the $1 a month tuition is too high, she said. She wouldn’t mind if her daughter found another trade if she ever learned English, she said.
But 35-year-old Sok Houy said she has no hope that her two daughters will go to university. Instead, she wants them to follow in the tradition of weaving.
“I want my daughter to only calculate numbers and read and write. That’s enough for me,” she said.
