Learning Offline... Literally!

We at PeopleStories strongly believes in making a real difference for the students and communities we serve.  One of the ways how we achieve that is by working very closely with teachers in Cambodia and today we speak with teacher Sarit about the impact of COVID19 on schools and learning in rural Cambodia. 

Teacher Sarit works at Ta Ey High School and teaches English for grades 8 and 10. He is a strong believer in education and has been an invaluable supporter of PeopleStories. ​

​Q: Schools in rural Siem Reap remain closed. What are teachers doing to reach out to the students during this time? 

Teachers in different areas reach out to the students in different ways. The teachers and students in the town are having online classes.  This works for them as the internet coverage in the town is good and students in the town have smart phones.   

For the schools further away from town, like my school, the internet is only available in and near the market.  Moreover, our students do not have smart phones. Our teachers have been preparing the lessons and exercises for the students using study books and paper. Then we make appointment with a group of 10 students to meet at school.  Some teachers go directly to every home in the villages.  

And for the schools very far from town, the teachers can only prepare the lessons and exercises for the students, then bring these to the students. 

Q: How do the teachers monitor the progress of the students? 

We meet up with the students with our lessons and exercises.  Then we will collect the work at our next meeting.  It is not so effective because we are not meeting every day and it is difficult to get all the work back. 

​Q: How do you motivate students to keep studying while schools are closed? 

I motivate them by telling them the benefits of education. When I assign the tasks to them, I always collect them back to grade them. But I think it is not so effective. So sometimes, I had to warn them that if they don’t study hard, they may have difficulty catching up when the schools reopen.  I reminded them that and they have to take the final examination too. 

Q: Do the students and teachers take precautions like wearing masks, washing hands or practise social distancing? 

We took precautions only at first but not for long.  We can only maintain social distancing and clean our hands with sanitiser but we do not put on masks. 

Thank you teacher Sarit for sharing this! 

It is sometimes easy to forget how relatively easy most of us have it in developed cities and countries and how difficult it is in remote and rural areas when it comes to learning especially during school closures.  Full credit to all the teachers trying their very best to visit students and continue learning in small groups without having the benefit of technology or the internet.  

We at PeopleStories are working on a solution to start addressing this challenge by taking the first step in mobile learning. Stay tuned and we hope to have some further exciting news soon! ​​