Indigenous pre-schoolers set-up for lifetime of learning

6 December, Ratanakiri – “There are too many people, I won’t sing,” whispers the confident four-year-old Kadoy Seyha to his mother in his native tongue, Cambodia’s minority Kreung language. She was trying to get him to show off what he’s been learning lately at pre-school, but he’s been in a bad mood this week because he’s impatient to get back in the classroom after the holiday break.  

“He likes going to school. When the teacher is absent, he’s so angry,” says Seyha’s mother, 33-year-old Try Nga. “That’s why he does not speak to you. He always asks, where is my teacher?”

His teacher is a few kilometres away, in a different classroom, playing games she’ll soon be introducing to Seyha and his classmates. Today is the fourth round of a 35-day training course for new teachers in the district’s community pre-schools, a type of school set up and managed by Commune Councils in remote areas where government pre-schools are not available.

Thirty-year-old Chhin Srey Ra didn’t choose to be a teacher. Like many of her fellow trainees – most of whom are from one of the five ethnic minority groups in the province and some of whom only have a Grade 3 education themselves – she was personally selected by the council and now plays a crucial role in giving her community’s youngest children the best possible to start to their education. 

Previously a farmer, Srey Ra says she was given the role because the staff at the commune hall, which is next door to her house, saw how much time she spent playing with the children of the neighbourhood. She hasn’t had the easiest start to her new teaching career, though – while most of her fellow trainees are new recruits, she’s spent the last two years in the classroom finding her way without any formal training.  

“Before the training, it was like I walked in the dark,” she says. “I didn’t know how to teach step by step, even though I had a manual to help me.” She tried asking YouTube, but still felt lost, and as the only teacher in charge of Cha Ong Chan Pre-School's 19 children, she couldn’t rely on others for support either. 

She says the trainings have given her the tools she needs to prepare the children to enter primary school. Through games and fun activities like singing and dancing, the children learn emotional and social skills, basic literacy, as well as handwashing and other important hygiene practises. Teachers also receive training on how to adapt songs and other learning materials into their own ethnic languages, which are taught alongside Khmer at multi-lingual education (MLE) schools until Grade 3. 

“Now I know where to go,” says Srey Ra. “I know the steps to make children learn. I can make lesson plans, I can manage my classroom, and when children get messy or when somebody gets angry, I know how to calm them down.” 

The 35-day trainings are part of UNICEF’s support to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), through funding from UNICEF Australia, to reach more of the country’s most vulnerable and remote children with quality early childhood education (ECE). 

While the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education has increased substantially nationwide, growing more than 64 per cent in the last decade thanks to greater demand from parents and communities, the proportion of children attending pre-school is still low. Only one in three children aged three to five years old are registered in ECE. Among the children aged three to five attending pre-school, 7.5 per cent were enrolled in community pre-schools in 2023, an increase from 6.7 per cent in 2014. 

In hard-to-reach provinces like Ratanakiri, where ethnic minority students are especially at risk of falling behind and dropping out at all levels of education, the trainings are helping to set a strong foundation for students’ learning so they are more likely to enter and complete primary school. Children who come through pre-school are also more likely to achieve better in school in later years.  

Since 2018, UNICEF has supported Provincial Offices of Education (POEs) to help 1,305 community pre-schools across Cambodia meet minimum standards outlined by the MoEYS and increase enrollment, including more than 30 schools in Ratanakiri, most of which are MLE pre-schools. Supporting children to learn in the language that they speak at home has also been shown to improve performance in school, especially in reading. 

Seyha’s parents say they have seen a big difference between Srey Ra’s teaching now and before. 

“When she started, there was not much fun,” says his mother, Nga. “Now she’s teaching using activities like singing and dancing. When children are happy, they want to learn.” 

Sam Oeun, Deputy Chief of Pre and Primary Education at POE Ratanakiri and one of the trainers for the course, says that lessons on gender as well as positive, non-violent discipline have been especially important, as they instill a set of values in children from the youngest age that they will carry with them for life.  

“We need to get teachers to incorporate the concept of gender from the beginning of education,” she says, adding that these lessons have had far-reaching impacts beyond the classroom too. “They gained a lot of knowledge, and they even came to report to me that domestic violence went down in their home. Their husbands learned their mistakes because their wife became a teacher and educated him to change his behaviour. They told me that they were happy and that their husband now seems to respect them.” 

Pre-school teacher Srey Ra is proud of her achievements and, with the positive feedback from both parents and primary school teachers, happy knowing that she’s giving her students the foundation they need to succeed in the future.  

“The Grade 1 teacher told me that the children who come through my pre-school learn better than the others who haven’t attended pre-school,” she says. And while she didn’t choose her new profession, she knows the job is the right one for her.  

“When I go to school, I feel happy.” 

Ratha Visa, whose daughter, six-year-old Srey Pich, began Grade 1 a few days ago, is more than confident that Srey Ra’s teaching has put her on the right path. As Srey Pich tragically lost her mother, her father says he’s all the more grateful that Srey Ra created a nurturing learning environment where his daughter can thrive.  

“She’s fully ready for primary school now,” he says. “She learned a lot from the pre-school. She’s braver than before and more responsible.” 

“I hope that the teacher will become even stronger in the future,” he adds. “Because children need to achieve their full potential – for their family and for the country.”