2021 Transition Project – Early Childhood Education

As Cambodia has become more developed in recent years, fewer families suffer from extreme poverty. KKS was set up to serve the poorest families in the Putsor community. Most of these families can now afford to send their children to their local public primary school.

It has become clear that KKS leavers are challenged in transitioning to public middle school. Class sizes increase from 15-20 to 40-50, the focus is very much on academic learning and subjects are limited.

For these reasons, GU feels it can better contribute to the wider community by ceasing KKS and focusing on other educational needs.

It is better that all children in the Putsor join their local public primary school at G1 (age 6) and face equal challenges and opportunities. GU understands that there are concerns with learning standards in primary school, and this is where GU can have a great impact.

National Key Issues:  

“At the primary levels, nearly 25 percent of children in Grade 3 cannot write a single word in a dictation test. Only 27 percent of 3-5 year olds are developmentally on track in literacy and numeracy. By the time they are 17 years old, 55 percent of adolescents will have dropped out of school” (Unicef).

In its national report of 2003, the Cambodian government stressed its commitment to health, social and emotional focused programs for children aged five and under. It promised “to enhance readiness of all Cambodian children to begin school at 6” through early childhood programs.

According to UNESCO, ” Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is more than preparation for primary school. It aims at the holistic development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong learning and well-being. ECCE has the possibility to nurture caring, capable and responsible future citizens.”

“ECCE contributes to preparing a child for entry into primary school and reducing the levels of non-completion and repetition of grades”(Rao & Pearson)

GU Cambodia Nutrition Aid Project addresses the issues of nutrition and health for 2,752 families in the Putsor area. This involves selecting a village health support group (VHSG) to join GU training and activities. They conduct household visits to support caregivers with particular focus on children under the age of 5.

However, there is a big void in the educational needs of these very young children in the Putsor community.

Community Key Issues: 

Very few children in the Putsor area have access to ECE. There are 4 existing programs with a total of 135 out of 862 3-5 year olds in attendance. This is less than 16% against MoEYS target of up to 70% for children aged 5 years.

These existing program are in 2 of the 4 primary schools in the Putsor Area. However, the teachers have not been trained for ECE and the program is not well defined. 

An effective GU ECE program would support early literacy so that the high percentage of students who reach Grade 3 with no literacy skills can be reduced.

2021 GU ECE Program: 

As part of KKS, GU has been providing Kindergarten classes. This has enabled KKS children to read and write from an early age, supporting the importance of ECE.

GU can better serve a greater number of children and their families by expanding an ECE program to care for 4-5 year olds (K1 and K2 classes).

GU ECE will have 160 students – four K1 and four K2 classes, each  with 20 students. Children will attend either a morning or afternoon class.

Some factors enabling the transition are:

• KKS teachers have experience and skills in ECE and these will be further developed.
• The KKS safe environment and resource meet the need of ECE
• GU will work closely with the local primary school and aim to have all its G1 students first attended GU ECE
• GU will work closely with this smaller community of parents and teachers ensuring involvement in children’s early and primary education. 
• Parents, local youths (from GU Youth Projects) and university students of education will be employed as teachers assistants

Longer term, GU proposes to become a “Center of excellence” for ECE in Putsor and the wider community. GU will assist in the training of educators for the other ECE schools and model how to best prepare all young children for primary school and beyond.

Click here to read the Aim of GU ECE Program.