Bringing 21st century skills into the classroom will be the centre of a new project at CARE Cambodia. Know & Grow will catapult education towards the future in ethnic minority communities in remote areas of Cambodia, through improving teaching on a number of key topics at lower secondary schools in Ratanak Kiri.
The project will focus on information communication technology and sexual reproductive health as well as improving awareness in life skills and gender-based violence. Complementary activities include developing a career counselling app, distributing science and technology equipment to schools and establishing school magazine clubs to improve digital literacy in Khmer and local languages.
CARE Cambodia has worked with ethnic minority communities to improve education in their communities since 2002. This project builds upon CARE’s previous work to increase ethnic minority access to education, aiming to ensure that children are learning more than just traditional subjects in the classroom but are equipped with the knowledge to be engaged ASEAN citizens.
Know & Grow is being launched at an inception workshop in Ratanak Kiri on March 17 and 18, with representatives from CARE USA as well as provincial officials present. Special guests will also attend a field visit to Ta Veang Lower Secondary School where a round table meeting will be held with CARE staff, the school director, representatives of the student council and school support committee.
Ethnic Minority Women program director Jan Noorlander said these new initiatives would help to give students a more well-rounded education.
“A quality education not only teaches reading, writing and mathematics, but also encourages analytical thinking, leadership skills and prepares students for their life beyond school,” he said.
“Reproductive health has not historically been addressed in classrooms in Ratanak Kiri. It’s important for teenagers to learn about health and human bodies as they become adults.”
The inception workshop also saw the launch of a gender-based violence report that studied ethnic minority communities in Ratanak Kiri. The results will be shared with participants.
CARE Cambodia is an international development organisation fighting global poverty with a special focus on working with women and girls to bring sustainable changes to their communities. CARE aims to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice to bring lasting change to the lives of poor and vulnerable people. In particular, CARE works with women who have migrated to urban areas, women and girls from ethnic minorities and rural women who are denied multiple rights.
For further information about the launch of Know & Grow, please contact: Mr Jan Noorlander, Program Director, Ethnic Minority Women.
Read more information about the Know & Grow project >