Educating children in rural areas

Situation

Ta Pen. In this isolated rural village, in the heart of the Cambodian forest, 150 families live in precarious conditions: lack of drinking water, impractical access, houses on stilts with only one room. These families, illeterate for over several generations, have five children on average and survive by working in the fields.

Priorities

The priority was to build a school to welcome the children of Ta Pen from early childhood to the end of secondary school, so that they can receive the basics of an education and acquire knowledge in hygiene and health. Allow them to continue their studies at the nearest high school or at a vocational training centre. Help them find their way and empower them in their academic or professional life.

Objectives achieved

The school built by Chamrong LO, a former Cambodian refugee in Switzerland and funded by Don du Chœur, now caters for 580 students aged 6 to 17. The school has an equal number of girls and boys and is currently in its 16th academic year. In 2014, the children of Ta Pen inaugurated a middle school with a capacity of 175 students. Don du Chœur oversees the school’s management, operations, and maintenance, while the State handles academic direction and teacher recruitment. To improve the quality of education, Don du Chœur has set a maximum class size of 35 students. The Association also recruits teachers to ensure all subjects are covered. Furthermore, it funds remedial classes for struggling students, as well as English and digital literacy courses. It provides advanced training for primary school teachers and ongoing professional development for trainee teachers. “Career Days” are organized in Ta Pen to raise awareness about future career paths among students from surrounding middle schools.

Today

The school has become the pride of the village.

Participating in and winning the reading competition, attending summer camps, gaining medals in sports competitions, participating in the Angkor Hospital for Children’s “cycling tour”… Beyond the academic curriculum, a whole range of activities enrich the project and are a source of pride for the local residents.

Secondary school studies: a springboard to the future !

It is a well-known fact: the higher the quality of middle school education, the better children perform academically and the more motivated they are to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. To date, 282 students have graduated from the Ta Pen middle school. Armed with this quality education, 86% of them go on to complete their secondary education (up to the baccalaureate level) or pursue vocational training. This is a wonderful achievement. Thanks to the proceeds from the 2026 *Dictée du Choeur* (Choir Dictation) event, a new eight-classroom building will be constructed, enabling more than 350 primary school students to receive full-time instruction.

A major new development this year is that high-speed internet access is now operational at Ta Pen, and the preschool is currently being expanded to accommodate children starting at age four.

Deserving students!

Among the first students who were enrolled at the Ta Pen school in 2010, some are now graduates of the Sala Baï Hotel and Restaurant School, renowned for the training of high-level chefs. At the beginning, they did not even know their surname! Coming from extremely poor families, it was a struggle to come to school.
Once they graduated from Ta Pen junior high school, they went to live in town, took the entrance exam to Sala Baï to train to be a chef, then alternated theoretical and practical classes in the big hotels of Siem Reap. They obtained their diploma from the Ministries of Labor and Vocational Training and of Tourism. What a magnificent achievement! Other students have obtained professional certificates in electricity and computer science and now have stable jobs. Others are enrolled at the University of Phnom Penh.