Instead of staying in their own country to study, secondary-school children in Preah Vihear province are crossing into Laos to attend classes due to a lack of local education facilities, provincial authorities said Thursday.
Some children, aged 10 to 12, prefer to go to schools just across the border rather than travel the 80 km to the closest district school, or 140 km to the nearest provincial school in Cambodia, Long Sovann, second deputy governor of Preah Vihear, said.
“I’m very sorry that we don’t have enough schools and teachers in the remote areas and have to let them study in another country,” Long Sovann said.
Save the Children Norway estimates that nearly 100 students attend school in Laos.
After completing their primary education, children leave their homes in Chhep district and cross over into Laos’ Champasak province, Long Sovann said. Once there, they stay for three-month stretches, often with relatives, studying a Lao syllabus in the Lao language, he said. Many of the residents in Preah Vihear’s border towns already speak Laotian.
While some pupils marry and decide to stay on in Laos, others return when they finish their education, Long Sovann said.
He expressed concern that studying in Laos will corrode the children’s sense of cultural identity.
“They won’t be able to learn about Cambodian history because they’re at foreign schools.” he said.
Official statistics for Preah Vihear depict a province in educational crisis. Of the 138 provincial schools in Preah Vihear, all but 27 are primary schools. Fifteen have a latrine, and 18 have a water supply, according to the Ministry of Education’s 2001-2002 report.
While there are problems throughout the Cambodian education system, Preah Vihear—one of the poorest provinces in the country—is the most afflicted, according to Beng Simeth, program director at Save the Children Norway.
“The schools are on the verge of collapse, the children are afraid to stay under the old wooden buildings,” he said. “The whole infrastructure is almost nothing and there is a huge lack of human resources.”
According to Ministry of Education statistics, in an average school in Preah Vihear province, a single teacher can have a class load of up to 48 students.
Still, enrollment in Preah Vihear is low. While government statistics say 50 percent of children in the province are enrolled in school, Save the Children Norway believes the actual number could be as low as 40 percent.
Some relief began making its way toward the province earlier last week, when the Japanese Embassy donated $63,960 to build schools in Tbeng Meanchey district and Sralao I commune in Chhup district. The former will be able to take over 1,500 pupils and the second, situated on the Laos border, will have a capacity for over 200 pupils, the embassy said.
Following a call for support from the Education Ministry, Save the Children Norway will begin constructing 27 schools in the area in September. These will all be at primary level, although the province has five times fewer secondary schools than primary schools.
“Secondary schools are a big problem, but we have to target primary schools,” Beng Simeth said.
The province’s lack of development stems largely from the presence of the Khmer Rouge. Preah Vihear was one of the rebel’s final bastions, and until the last soldiers demobilized in 1998, the province could scarcely be reached by central government and aid agencies. During that time, “Preah Vihear got nothing,” while other provinces were treated to governmental and NGO support, Beng Simeth said.
Although the new aid projects will take some of the weight off the province, more assistance is needed, Beng Simeth said. “[The schools] will help a lot, but they can only solve a third of its needs.”
Long Sovann also stressed the need for further external support in his province. “I would like to suggest to the government and NGOs that they build more schools and send more teachers,” he said.
Until adequate schools are built inside the Cambodian border, both the migrant pupils and their community will suffer, Beng Simeth said. “How can they find jobs if they don’t speak Khmer? How can they go to university?” he asked.
