Since 2006 Queenwood has been supporting the Cambodia Schools Project.
Cambodia is still recovering from the Khmer Rouge era from 1975 to 1979, when the population of 7 million lost anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million of its own citizens including most of its professionals and educated. On this background Queenwood’s participation in the Schools Project is vital. We are one of five schools which contribute to developing Teacher Training standards, resourcing, and funding physical improvements in four clustered primary schools near Phnom Penh.
Prior to the Project, the four primary schools were expected to be demolished. They are now, relative to primary schools in Phnom Penh itself and in the countryside, models of development. Junior School teachers have presented demonstration lessons in the four schools since 2006 and the Senior School sends a cohort of Year 10 girls every December to give lessons and gain exposure to the country, which can be confronting but also inevitably uplifting.
Fund raising activities to support this project are based on the 50K for 50K Walk, to be held this year on 13 October (with a 25Km option for the first time). Both Senior and Junior School girls have contributed to this project with cake stalls, mufti days and other targeted activities. The funds raised make a huge difference.
It remains rare to find electricity and adequate toilet facilities in most schools, and generally resources are scarce. In addition to funding teacher training, our Cambodia funds have been used to provide resources to students and teachers and facilities (constructing toilets, playgrounds and so on).
Since 2012 Queenwood has also supported library development in vital ways. We often take libraries for granted in Australia but they play a vital role in student achievement. Our library projects have provided the Cambodian library community with a blueprint to achieve this. Only half of the primary schools in the country actually have a library, and their facilities are rudimentary. The four project school libraries have been given training in basic organisation and, most significantly, a Dewey Decimal Guide in their Khmer language has been produced and disseminated countrywide with the Ministry’s stamp and authority.
For five years we have been training librarians in the use of the Dewey Guide, in developing a library budget, in producing a library manual, with each subsequent workshop targeting higher level personnel. The two-day workshop just concluded in July this year included the Directors of every Teacher Training College in the country, four Ministry personnel, twenty librarians and school principals. Stephanie Bush, who retired from the Junior School Medway Library at the end of 2012, has been to the project libraries, organised basic borrowing systems, delivered many resources, conducted workshops and facilitated the Dewey Decimal Guide translation, with the assistance of three tertiary level Cambodian librarians. This Guide is a major achievement, and was only made possible by the fund raising efforts of the school community.
The next step, and there’s always a next step in such an impoverished environment, is to extend the librarians’ training, introduce computerisation to at least one of the project school libraries, and deliver other services to the librarians based on what they perceive their needs to be.
Our long-term commitment to the Cambodia Schools Project has had tangible results: professional development and practical resources for trainee teachers, libraries with literally hundreds of new book stock, a Dewey Decimal Guide in their own language, school grounds with toilet blocks, white boards, playground equipment, and priceless knowledge imparted by visiting Queenwood staff. Even with all this, the contrast between the schools in Cambodia and Queenwood is stark.
Our girls are so lucky to have every opportunity and resource available to them. I hope as many of you as possible will help us to sustain this work in Cambodia – by participating in the 50K for 50K Walk yourself, or sponsoring someone else. It is always a thoroughly enjoyable day and we are grateful to the many parent helpers who make it possible.
Ms Elizabeth Stone
Principal