The Green Umbrella Primary School, also knows as Karuna Kumar School (KKS), was set up to serve the poorest families in the Putsor community and GU carefully selected one child each from a very needy family to join their school every year. As Cambodia has become more developed in recent years, fewer families suffer from extreme poverty and can now afford to send their children to their local public primary school.

KKS students had challenges in transitioning to public middle school as class sizes increased from 15-20 to 40-50 with the focus being on academic learning.For these reasons, GU felt it can better contribute to the wider community by ceasing KKS and focusing on Early Childhood Education. Now all children in the Putsor commune join their local public primary school at Grade 1 (age 6) and face equal opportunities.

Children are provided with an education based on Cambodia’s national curriculum, which includes Khmer, Math, Science and Social Studies. GU also offers a library borrowing system to our students. These books are frequently used to practice reading at home with their families.

GU has been providing students Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for students to develop their basic computer skills and communication in English. ICT is also taught so that the students can become skilled in using technology in different ways. They use computers and iPads to create presentations, make videos, and to carry out student research.

The fact that our students are from families who are living with poverty results in a situation where they often lack basic nutrition. GU provides them breakfast and lunch at school to ensure that students have good nutrition, and can remain happy and healthy. All students have a full health check twice a year.