We’re going back to Cambodia in a couple of weeks.  Lots of people ask us ‘What do you actually do when you visit Cambodia?’  Well, its really hard to describe, but this time one of the many things we’re doing is attending a ‘Teaching workshop”.

One of the very successful programmes our team in Cambodia has developed is a programme of monthly teaching workshops for developing teachers' skills. These workshops have proved to be very successful.  So much so that School Directors from both supported and unsupported schools and staff from the District and Provincial Offices of the Ministry of Education in Cambodia also attend them. The workshops are part of the Trust's push to improve the quality of teaching in the schools we support.  Teachers in Cambodia generally have been exposed to a very limited range of teaching skills and knowledge, and have hardly any resources to use for their teaching.  Traditionally, teaching has been centred around chanting and rote learning.  The Trust's workshops aim to give teachers skills in child-centred teaching, problem solving, critical thinking, using natural resources for teaching, fun methods of teaching, etc.

It's fantastic when we see the results of the workshops as we visit the schools.  Even better is when we see change in schools that we don’t support yet, because the teachers have heard about the content of the workshops and changed their practice, or the School Director has been to the workshop and handed the knowledge down to his or her team. 

So it's not depressing going to Cambodia; it's exciting, and rewarding, and humbling.  And it's thanks to all our donors that we can implement programmes like the teaching workshops.

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