Children's Action For Development Peas School
Peas school is unique because it is located a long way from other communities, the roads are bad and there are no houses for teachers to rent in the area. Because they could not find teachers, the Department of Education was reluctant to build a school, so CAD started a community school in Peas in 2002. The government could then see that there were enough children in this area to merit a government school. After much lobbying by the CAD Executive Director, a government school was built in 2012 and 109 children attended. At the start, things were very difficult for the School Director because no teachers wanted to travel 30km a day to the school on bad roads.
The CAD community school was very poor quality but the students were enthusiastic.
The new classroom built by MOE in 2012
At the start of the project, Peas school ran 3 classes and was staffed by:
- A School Director
- Two Community Teachers
Due to the remote location, the School Director was teaching two classes but only being paid for one.
As a result of lobbying from the Executive Director of CAD, the School Director is now paid for two shifts (and also received back pay).
New school built in 2012. In 2016 three more classrooms were built by ARUPE (Spain) and the number of students increased to 185 children.
In 2016, three qualified teachers were running 5 classes. In 2017, the school was able to provide classes for grade 6 students so they do not have to travel 10 km to school.
In early 2018, the School Director was all smiles. At the start of the project, he wanted to leave because it was a bad place to work but he doesn’t want to leave the school now. He said that there is still a problem with number teachers available to work in this remote community, but the Provincial Office of Education has overcome this by paying for double shifts. Teachers are very happy and so is he!
Between 2013-16 school also received grants from Classroom of Hope (SfE project) to run lifeskills and remedial classes, install water filters and washing facilities and a playground. Particularly poor children were sponsored with school uniforms and materials.
SfE also provided a playground which was built by CAD in June 2016 on ground that was in-filled and compacted as a result of a donation from a rich Cambodian who wanted to support the school. This is a great sign of local support!.