• Society

Prek Toal Students Catch a Boat to Go to School, Set on Building a Promising Future 

• By Heng Sreylin
• February 1, 2024 3:10 PM

BATTAMBANG – Boat is the only way to go from one place to another for people living on the Tonle Sap Lake in Battambang province, and this includes students eager to get an education that will change their lives. 

Seanghuy Seanghouy and Yom Socheata have to travel by boat to get to their school, which is on a boat far away from home. Every day, they get up very early in the morning to do housework and prepare meals before catching a boat to Koh Chiveang Secondary School in Battambang’s Ek Phnom district.

Seanghouy has grown up in Prek Toal village on the Tonle Sap Lake. She is now a 7th grade student. Riding in a boat to school has become routine for the 13-year-old girl.

Her father is a fisherman and her mother a housewife. She is the second of three children. Her older brother had to drop out of school in 7th grade to help support the family as their father is in poor health.

Since Seanghouy’s family does not have a boat for her to go to school, she travels with a cousin.  

On school days, she gets up at 4:00 am, prepare fresh water, have breakfast, don her student uniform, and wait for her cousin. The ride from her home to school takes about 30 minutes. Every trip is difficult, especially during the rainy season.

“Some days, there are a lot of people on the boat,” Seanghouy said. When they encounter big waves, her bag and clothes get wet. “It’s okay because everyone can swim,” she said. She has been swimming since she was 6 years old.

According to Seanghouy, her school results have improved since attending an extra course at school. At first, her family did not want her to go to high school because the school is on shore, and they have no relative on shore. 

“If I continue to study, I will have a job,” Seanghouy said. “If I drop out, I’m not getting a good job. In the future, I want to be a teacher.” With such a job, she would be able to help her family get out of this difficult life, she said. 

Seanghouy’s friend Socheata also lives in a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake, and often travels by boat with her cousins to get to school. She gets up at 4 a.m., cooks, eats, and then wait for the boat to get to school.

While most parents have their children learn to swim from an early age in case of accidents during boat trips, Socheata said her mother does not think so. “She said that if I did not know how to swim, she still would allow me to go to school because she wanted me to have education, unlike her,” she said.

Socheata’s father has passed way, and her mother works as security guard. The 13-year-old is the youngest of the family.  Her siblings had the opportunity to study up to grades 8 and 11, respectively. Socheata, who is now in grade 7, hopes to be able to keep on studying as long as possible.

“I want to have a job and come back to help my mother,” she said. “I want to be a taekwondo coach.” At the present time, there is no taekwondo class at her school. 

 

Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this article was translated by Torn Chanritheara for Cambodianess