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You
are here: An Ordinary Day
May 2004
The seventh in a series of journal reports from Cambodia on a new school leadership professional development project
We are jostled by hundreds of children rushing to be on time as we approach the gate of the school. Outside the gate are snack sellers, beggars, parents dropping off children (three and four on a moto,) construction workers digging a new canal, and noisy dusty traffic. It is 6:55 am and already the temperature is in the high 80s. It will reach 100 degrees before we leave.
The school gate and arriving students
Four large two-story buildings create a fortress-like setting for the 2,000 students who gather at the flagpole for opening ceremony. In straight lines, the children face the flagpole and listen to morning announcements then, with a sign I miss, move to their classrooms with noisy enthusiasm.
The school is Steung Meanchay Primary School in northwest Phnom Penh. It is located about one half kilometer from the city dump and, when the wind blows, it is obvious that powerful smells can travel long distances. These children are the first shift. The scene will be repeated two more times today as three shifts of teachers and children - a total enrollment of almost 5,000 - move in and out of the school.
It is an ordinary day for Sok Vannarith, the principal. In his mid fifties, Mr. Sok has worked at Steung Meanchay Primary School since 1984 as a teacher, assistant principal and now principal. After he sends the children off to class, he invites Reaksmey and me to join him in the office. We greet each other warmly and sit in the small cluttered office. I notice a man writing what seems to be an organizational chart on a large white board. The principal says that the Ministry has ordered all schools to prominently display the educational "hierarchy" so that everyone "knows where they belong in the organization. "
The author and Mr. Sok
I begin as I always do and ask Mr. Sok to tell his story. How did he come to be a principal? Like most principals I have interviewed, he is very comfortable talking about his life before and after Pol Pot, but skips those four years in his narrative. I have learned not to push this omission. It is a painful topic for most.
When the Vietnamese drove the Khmer Rouge soldiers out of Phnom Penh in 1979, Mr. Sok set up a small school near Cheung Eck, site of one of the most gruesome of Cambodia's Killing Fields. There was no Ministry of Education then so he improvised. Eventually the Ministry of Education took control of the school. And, in 1984, Mr. Sok moved to Steung Meanchay Primary School.
He talks about the school and the students as a steady stream of children and adults pass through the office. It is the beginning of an ordinary day. Over half of the children come from poor families. In Cambodia, this means over 2,500 of the children come from families that struggle to survive on less than $1 per day. Most of them earn their living scavenging the dump for saleable items. Along with their parents, the children spend half their day walking through the foul smelling garbage in search of salvageable scraps.
The principal, a compassionate man, tries to support the children and their families with the help of many international non-governmental organizations. Smile of a Child, a French organization, supports 700 of the children. It pays for uniforms and school fees ($1 a month to the teacher) as well as a stipend to the family that equals what the child could make sorting through garbage at the dump instead of attending school. These desperately poor families want their children to go to school, but depend on the income the children earn. It often determines whether or not a family will eat that day. The support of Smile of a Child enables children to attend school and contribute to the support of their families.
When he tells us about all the ways they try to help the children, he sighs deeply and says, "But there is no way to help them all. Oh how I wish we could." I am struck not only by how caring and courageous he is, but also by how nothing in my experience as a principal comes close to his daily reality. How can I possibly help him? What can I offer? I am shocked when he thanks me for the workshops. He has no training in leadership, he says, and the workshops have taught him that much of what he does (building relationships, getting resources, etc.) is correct. He is thrilled and feels he is on the right track.
"I am so glad that you taught us about having a vision for our school at the last workshop," he says. "You asked us to look into the future, to think about what we wanted our schools to be like. You had us write about it and even draw it." The next day he had visitors from the EU who expressed interest in helping him construct another building that will enable the school to only have only two shifts. Their first question was "What is your vision for the school?" With clarity and confidence he described his vision and showed them his drawing. They were impressed and agreed to fund the building.
The square of the school from the second story
As we cross the school grounds to look at classrooms, I hear noise coming from a classroom on the other side of the playground. I recognize it as the wonderful sound of excited learning. I quickly head in that direction, with Reaksmey and Mr. Sok following. When I come to the door the teacher looks embarrassed and the children become very quiet. I ask Reaksmey to tell them to please continue their wonderful lesson. But the spell has been broken. I suspect it is hard for them to imagine that a visitor would want to see such fun. It would not be real learning. Real learning is copying from the chalkboard or textbook. I notice that a few of the other teachers are trying new strategies of a "student centered approach" but that most of them just lecture while the children write in their copybooks.
While there is time set aside each week for training (half days on Thursdays,) it doesn't usually happen. All training must come out of the Municipal School System or the District Office of Education. According to Mr. Sok, the only structured training the teachers had this year was in the week before school began. Principals are not authorized to find ways to improve teaching and learning, but are expected to find the resources to construct new buildings on their own.
Mr. Sok has done an amazing job of finding resources for new buildings. We walk to the school's health clinic. I believe this is the only school with a health clinic in Phnom Penh. It is new and staffed with a full time doctor. The funding comes from the Smile of a Child Foundation. The clinic is spotless. I watch the doctor ministering gently to the children who have open sores and wounds. A few children are sleeping. The doctor says that most of the children have skin conditions caused by toxins at the dump. He also treats family members when they come into the clinic. It is an oasis in what must be a chaotic and dangerous life for these children.
The young doctor tending to children in the health clinic
Back in the office, Mr. Sok shows me his old wooden desk and small side table where stacks of paper are piled at least a foot high. This is the paperwork he must complete for the Ministry, Provincial Office or District Office of Education this month! And, there are no computers or copy machines in any school that I have visited. Everything is done by hand.
He accompanies us to the gate and comments on the trash in the schoolyard. The students pick it up each day and put it in bags for collection every other day. But lately he has not had enough money to pay for every other day pickup. "You mean you must pay for garbage pick up?" I ask. "Sometimes I have to pay for it myself in order to get the school cleaned up," he answers. Along with everything else he does, he pays part of his $30 a month salary for trash pick up!
I walk through the gate, smell the odor from the dump, hear the noise of traffic and see the mass of children and adults that is city life here and know I have just had one of my most powerful experiences of the year. This has been an extraordinary "ordinary" day.
You may email John Morefield at jmore44@yahoo.com.
© June 2004 New Horizons for Learning
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