Tonle Sap Residents Push Their Children to go to School

While the Moat Kla School had a total of 300 students four years ago, it now sees about 400 children crossing the school’s gate every day. Photo: Chhum Chantha

SIEM REAP – Even without abundant resources, more and more parents around the Tonle Sap Lake push their offspring to attend school, acknowledging it is the best way for them to have a better future.



Vath Van, a fisherman in Moat Kla village, Anglong Samnar commune, Chi Kraeng district, Siem Reap province, is one of them.



While he lives in poor conditions, the 36-year-old man chooses to push his four children to attend school every day and does anything he can to prevent them from dropping out.



“I encourage my children to study hard, I want them to be tired. I can’t let my children be stupid,” he said.



“I send my children to school because I am illiterate. People often look down on me, saying that I’m raising four children and do not know how to read. It’s been painful my entire life, so I decided to send my children to school,” he added.



As more and more people in his community are doing the same, he has seen the general level of knowledge improve in recent years.



Theung Soksan, who also lives in Moat Khla village, said that despite being busy as a fisherwoman, she always encourages her children to get an education because she does not want them to be illiterate.



Thanks to the money she saved up, she wants her children to study up to the 9th or 10th grade so they can use the knowledge they got from school to work and do business.



Theung Soksan observed that now the people in Moat Khla village are beginning to understand the importance of education and are sending more children to school.



“I push my child every day to go to school to learn. I want them to have the knowledge and not be as stupid as their parents. Before my husband goes fishing, he always drops the children at school and comes to pick them back at the end of the day,” she said.



Hach Senghak, one of the village school’s teachers said he sees that the villagers push their children to receive more education. “Compared to four years ago it is a huge difference. Nobody didn’t want to see their children study.”



He added that some parents do not want their children to go to school as they can’t afford to pay for the expenses or to give up the cheap labor they represent. They prefer their children to help them fish or sell, or to follow them when they go to Thailand as migrant workers.



Despite such challenges, he noted that the number of students dropping out has declined.



While the Moat Kla School had a total of 300 students four years ago, it now sees about 400 children crossing the school’s gate every day. The rate of school failures also declined in that period of time, with about 20 to 30 dropouts recorded last year, compared to 70 four years ago.



“Unlike my generation, students now come more regularly to school. In my time, we used to go to school only when we felt like it. But now we see that parents push their children a lot and understand that illiteracy makes it difficult to find a job,” he added.



 



Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this story was translated by Te Chhaysinh for Cambodianess.


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