Island’s Education Suffers Under Isolation
In the schools on Koh Rong, teachers are hard to find, and students are hard to keep. (04 November 2008)
Behind the voices of students, the noise of the sea spreadover high grass, the classroom and a nearby pagoda. Surrounded by beaches and mountainforest and imbued with fresh air, Prek Svay, one of only five primary schoolson the island of Koh Rong, would seem like an ideal placeto study. Unfortunately, the island’s education system is poor. The schools here in fact lack both teachers and students.Teachers are hard to find, and students are hard to keep. Third-grade teacher Pho Sokhem, 26, said he spent $200 ofhis own money to build a small hut on the school grounds, where he lives withhis wife and two-year-old son. Other teachers live in the houses of localofficials and villagers, or with monks. “I spent my own money to buy timbers and peeled-skin treesto build a hut,” Pho Sokhem said. “That is my hut.” He pointed to a smallcottage. “Some [teachers] stay at the pagodaand some stay and eat with me.” Ing Bunna, deputy chief of Sihanoukville’s educationdepartment, said the government had asked local authorities to put up someteachers, free of charge, because it lacked the money to build themaccommodation. The government also pays a 40,000 riel allowance, about $10, tosupplement the 200,000 riel wage, about $50 a month. Teachers on this island say the 40,000 riel is not enough toassuage the loneliness of the outpost, where some live without the company of familyand must spend a lot of money to visit the mainland. “It is hard to live with little salary here,” said Set Tik,26, another teacher. “We live far away from home. The transportation cost tovisit home is expensive. The food here is expensive. I stay with a nun, and weshare meals.” Schools are up to 40 kilometers apart. Some are inaccessibleby roads. The isolation has caused some teachers to renege on their contracts,Ing Bunna said. It has also made it impossible to establish a secondary school.For that, students must travel to Sihanoukville or beyond. If it is hard to keep teachers here, it is also hard to keepstudents. Parents often pull their children out of school in order to help themmake a living. Teachers on the island estimated 35 percent of students quitschool in 2007, a year when there were only 374 to start with. “I wish I could have studied as high as possible,” said KouMoykea, 18, who was among those who quit last year. “But my parentsforced me to help them farm and fish, and baby-sit besides.”