About 650 school children in Kampot province’s Banteay Meas district are being forced to study outside under trees because their teachers are afraid their school building will soon collapse, Phou Tey Kok, chief of provincial education in Kampot, said this week.
After the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, officials took the building in Sdach Kong commune for a school, but the building has deteriorated and is now unsafe for the students, Phou Tey Kok said Monday.
He urged the directors of the oldest schools in Kampot to ask for more money from the national government to build a new school or fix the old one.
Hem Samkol, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Education, said officials from Phnom Penh will go to Kampot to examine the school situation and appeal to NGOs for help.
The Association of Schools in Cambodia has built 24 schools accommodating 150 classes in Kampot province, many of which are in Kampot town. On Monday, at an opening ceremony for another school, Kampot Governor Ly Sou asked the association to help rebuild the school in Sdach Kong province.
Mariko Okamura, president of the association, said she will ask the Japanese government to look into whether her group will be able to build more schools.
