It was the first time the country took part in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) study. Among the 78 countries evaluated, the Filipino system ranked either last or second-to-last in every subject measured.

While that assessment has yet to be repeated after the pandemic, it’s unlikely it would show better results. The Philippines had one of the world’s longest periods of in-person school closures, with most children in distance learning for more than two years.

The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has identified education as a key priority area. In a recent speech addressing the state of the national system, the president made promises to do better.

“We have failed them, we have to admit that,” Marcos Jr. said. “We have failed our children and let us not keep failing them anymore.”

Beyond the OECD, the World Bank and UNESCO have found high levels of “learning poverty” in the Philippines relative to its level of development. While Marcos Jr. has unrolled a new campaign to support schools, experts who spoke with Globe said the problems facing schools are complex, lean heavily on wider social conditions and require long-term solutions.

The World Bank and UNESCO developed the concept of learning poverty as a way to measure children’s progress in basic reading and comprehension skills. In a 2022 report, the World Bank stated the Philippines’ rate of learning poverty stood at 91%, meaning that number of ten-year-olds were unable to read and understand age-appropriate texts. 

That’s up slightly from the year prior, when the country’s measured learning poverty was about 90%. 

Even when compared to other low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines stands out with a learning poverty rate 56.4% higher than the average for the East Asia and Pacific region. It’s also 30.5% higher than the average for lower-middle-income countries. 

Experts say problems start before children even begin classes. 

“Probably the most important reason is related to the factors around readiness to start school,” said Isy Faingold, chief of education at UNICEF Philippines. 

The first years of life are critical to children’s education. In the Philippines, Faingold said, about 30% of children are stunted due to malnutrition. While schools do have feeding programmes, these are not year-round, according to Diane Fajardo, deputy director of advocacy group Philippines Business for Education.

Isy Faingold, chief of education at UNICEF Philippines, said another factor affecting children’s readiness for school is a lack of universal preschool. While attending K-12 has been compulsory since 2013, almost 30% of children are not enrolled in kindergarten and the numbers are even worse for preschoolers. 

Less than half of children aged 3-4 years attend preschool. Faingold said those that don’t are starting school on unequal footing.  

But the issues don’t stop once children are in school. 

Fajardo also pointed to several problems troubling the system. She listed low teaching quality, curriculum overload, underinvestment by the government and a lack of professional development programs and business partnerships as just a few.

Last year, the Filipino Alliance of Concerned Teachers called for doubling the annual budget for public education, saying the schools system was “embroiled in an unprecedented crisis”.

On top of that, according to SEA-PLM, a Southeast Asia regional learning survey, Filipino children seem to experience additional social problems contributing to a difficult learning environment. Of all the countries surveyed, the survey showed these children find it the hardest to make friends, with 63% of children reporting bullying in school.

“Violence in the schools is critical, bullying is very high in the Philippines,” said Faingold. “That is one of the factors that affects learning, because if you are bullied in schools, you will not learn as expected.”

Fajardo sees a lack of pre-professional development as one of the system’s main challenges. She wants to see a greater focus on creating internship opportunities or workplace training for older students. 

But the single-biggest issue she flagged was a general lack of government oversight and coordination in schooling.

The Department of Education is responsible for students once they enter K-12 at five years old. But until the age of five, during the most critical years of preparation for success in school, they are the responsibility of other government agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

For Fajardo, this lack of coordination should be the first thing fixed.

In an attempt to address some of these issues, along with pandemic-related learning loss, the Marcos Jr. administration has introduced an education agenda dubbed MATATAG. 

The acronym is drawn from lengthy phrases about job preparation, with aims of improving school curricula and education facilities, while promoting students’ overall well-being and supporting teachers. 

According to attorney Michael Poa, the spokesperson and chief of staff at the Department of Education, in comparison to previous education plans, the MATATAG agenda is a set of concrete steps the government will take, in an effort to promote transparency and accountability. 

“We wanted the public to have concrete steps that we are working towards, so that by the end of the administration it’s going to be like a checklist,” Poa said. “We can check what we’ve done and if there is something we haven’t done then we can admit to that and give the reasons why.”

While Faingold believed these initiatives were moving in the right direction, he maintained that more investment in the education system is necessary, especially in teacher development. 

“There are a number of initiatives that are moving in the right direction,” he said. “But it is a very complex sector at the same time. You need to work in all the parts of the system to make a difference.”

Correction: This piece originally attributed information about children bringing food home from school to share with their families to Isy Faingold. That information should have been sourced to Diane Fajardo. The text has been updated to reflect this.

The post The Philippines falls behind in children’s learning appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Hello, and welcome to the second episode of the third season of the Anakut podcast.

This week, our hosts, Thina, Andrew, and Voleak, get schooled on the ins and outs of public education in Cambodia. 

Covid resulted in a loss of 250 days of school for Cambodian students. With a focus on the status of public education post-pandemic, we learn what the learning outcomes are for students who lost out on a year of educational opportunities. One of our guests, Chhun Vyrada, is a teacher and fellow with Teach for Cambodia. She shares her experience working in the public school system’s classrooms that have been disrupted by the pandemic and the subsequent scramble to streamline online learning- to varying degrees of success. She shares the new methods she is introducing to her classroom, like promoting cooperative learning by making sure each student has a “learning buddy” to work with. From adaptive challenges faced by students and teachers, to the importance of a growth mindset, we learn through an insider’s perspective on the challenges of working within the Cambodian public education system.   

Outside of the classroom, we also get the scoop on how the Ministry of Education is handling the crisis and attempting to recover learning losses through targeted interventions and teacher training. Still, this presents its own challenges; while teachers can provide remedial classes based on the results of exams, is this enough to fully make up for the losses? 

It’s not only remedial classes that can help students make up for learning losses. Our guest Ou Sokhim is the education and technical lead at Aide et Action, an education non-profit. He asks us to consider holistic care for students. Outside of the classroom, how else do they need support? Maybe some students need a bicycle to get to and from school. Maybe they do not have the money for a uniform or school supplies. Providing resources that support kids outside of the classroom is another way to facilitate a student’s growth.

While teachers can provide remedial classes based on the results of exams, is this enough to fully make up for the losses?”

But, it’s not just students that need support. How can we help teachers and parents? Well, teachers could receive more training on teaching methods, and the government could work to improve the quality of curriculum. The government could also raise their incomes. As for parents, our guests suggest forming support groups and through telegram or facebook messenger. Additionally, perhaps asking teachers to send videos or audio guides to help students with their assignments might be another way for students to get support at home.      

Of course, we are also reminded in this episode that students also should create their own knowledge, and soft skills shouldn’t be erased in favour of an exclusively hard-skills based curriculum. Listen on to hear the reasons why while not traditionally taught in schools, technology skills, life skills, and communication skills have an essential role to play in the future of Cambodia’s education system.

All episodes of the podcast can be found on our Anakut webpage, Amazon, Apple, Google and Spotify.

The post The Anakut podcast: Public Education in Cambodia appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Besides the usual books, crayons and other supplies, her school comes equipped with something that would be a little more unusual outside of the city-state – a team of school counsellors, ready to help students manage their stress ahead of their national exam.

For Lim’s daughter, the test won’t even happen for another six years. But for her and all the other children in her cohort, the exam’s results could determine the rest of their academic careers well into adulthood. 

Lim, a Singaporean mother of two young girls who went through the system herself, says she knows how challenging it can be to meet her society’s high expectations. 

“The pressure comes from everywhere,” Lim said. “In Singapore, smart kids are popular and looked up to, but if a child is talented in art or anything that is not mainstream, will be subjected to severe bullying.”

Singapore’s education levels are some of the highest-ranked globally, a key trait for a city-state that relies on schooling as an economic strength and source of national pride. But its system is also notably one of the hardest to be a student, and soaring academic achievements sometimes come at a high cost to youth mental health. 

This was particularly dire during the social isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic. Data shows that suicide was the primary cause of death among Singaporeans between the ages of 10-29 years, as of 2021. The number of youth suicides hit a record high that year, making up about a third of all suicides in the city-state.

Amidst this stark development, the city-state’s government began to overhaul parts of its public education system. While social pressure on students to earn high grades remains high, many parents and educational experts say recent moves to emphasise well-being in schools seems to be a step in the right direction. 

On 1 March, the Ministry of Education announced its latest changes by scrapping some exams, partially amending the testing system and introducing mixed-ability student groups for subjects including music and physical education.

The shift is part of the ministry’s “Learn for Life” campaign. Launched in 2020, the programme encourages Singaporean schools to integrate alternative subjects into curriculums to teach students resilience in daily life as well as to pursue different academic paths according to individual interests and abilities. The ministry also rolled out a plan to reduce stress levels for students while encouraging parents – and society as a whole – to adopt a more holistic approach to education. 

Although children in Singapore enter compulsory education at seven years old, those from wealthier families start attending private classes when they are much younger to gain an edge in primary school. The new educational reforms are also geared to close some of these early disparities to give children of all backgrounds a path to high-level schooling. 

That can have major implications for their livelihoods. As of last year, university graduates could reportedly earn double the income of graduates from institutes of technical education and about one-and-a-half more than polytechnic graduates.

At the same time, government data shows the percentage of people entering national universities has increased from around 5% in the mid-1980s to more than 50% in 2022. 

“Singapore’s education system has always been extremely stressful,” Lim said. “But children are now experiencing higher levels of stress as nobody wants to lose out on this system.”

Education is still viewed as one of the main keys to social mobility. From primary school to the pre-university level, the government subsidises more than 90% of education costs for Singaporean citizens. Prominent public sector figures, including current Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, rose from working-class backgrounds to achieve first-class honours at internationally renowned universities before entering the top economic and professional echelons of the city-state society. 

This ethos of academic meritocracy has helped build a rigorous education system but also feeds concerns that, despite new steps to relieve stress, an underlying culture of ambition and elitism will be harder to address. 

“The government has been doing quite a lot to reduce the stress on the kids, but society and culture are the way they are,” said Lim. “Singaporeans will continue to see success very narrowly. If you are not an engineer or lawyer or doctor, you are seen as not successful.” 

New reforms

The current education system divides secondary school students into four academic streams: Integrated Programme, Express stream, Normal Academic and Normal Technical. 

The first two are accessible only to students with high grades and top academic achievements. 

But this system is due to be dismantled by next year. As part of the Learn for Life campaign, the Education Ministry announced earlier this month that all secondary schools will be shifting from stream-based testing to “full subject-based banding”. 

This means students will join mixed classes at different levels according to their academic capabilities in six subjects from Singapore’s Common Curriculum, in which all students are required to take part. These include areas such as art, design and technology and physical education.

This is aimed at grouping together students from the different streams in the same class to reduce the social stigma attached to the Normal stream.

The Education Ministry has also announced intent to scrap mid-year exams for students at junior colleges and the Millennia Institute, a centralised pre-university programme focused on commerce.

The move aligns with the removal of mid-year exams in primary and secondary schools by the end of this year, all of which is intended to cut back on the societal focus on testing and free up instruction time for non-academic social and emotional goals.

Concerns still remain

The announced changes could fundamentally change parts of the educational system, but some observers say there’s still plenty of room for stress in the classroom.

Asher Low, executive director of Limitless Singapore, a non-profit organisation for youth mental health support said some parents are concerned about the scrapping of mid-term exams.

“If the family can’t keep track of their child’s academic progress, it is likely that the kid’s pressure increases ahead of finals as they won’t know what their chances of success are,” said Low, who’s also a senior social worker at Limitless.

This seems to be the main objection of what Lim calls “tiger parents”, whose primary goal is to see their children in top academic institutions regardless of what it takes to get there.

While sharing some of their concerns, he prefers to see the elimination of some exams as a chance for students to take better care of their mental health while dedicating more time to non-academic activities, such as art, sports and social gatherings. 

“Although there are still a lot of tiger parents around in Singapore, I am glad to see that the new trend is to prioritise our kids’ mental health,” Lim said.

But contrary to Lim’s optimism, Low believes that education is only a tiny part of the problem. 

“Nothing will really change if the society’s mindset remains this narrow,” he said.

Increasing awareness of mental health

While the emphasis on education hasn’t faded, deeper changes do seem to be taking root on the societal level according to Cho Ming Xiu, founder and executive director of youth mental health social service Campus PSY.

Every year, a coalition made up of Campus PSY and mental health institutions train about 5,200 youths aged 13-25 in active listening, empathy, coping mechanisms and identifying symptoms of severe mental conditions among their peers. 

The coalition also trains youths in basic suicide prevention and first aid protocols in cases of suicide attempts. These groups would then operate in-person in schools or local youth venues, as well as online through social media.

“It is crucial to have a strong support system from an early age,” Cho said. “But I think that the scrapping of mid-year examinations is only the first step towards the needed social change.”

The post In stressed-out Singapore, schools are changing their tone appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

“With Covid-19, students learned to adapt to new situations,” explained Dr. Sopheak Song, CERI director. “In the next ten years, based on the current transformation in technology and in our development aspirations, students will be able to better utilise the internet and won’t be restricted to the confines of a classroom.”

Examining the pandemic’s impact, Thnal Udom Chomnes: Reimaging Future Education of Cambodia was launched in July 2021. The first stream included studies into higher education’s readiness for the “forced adoption of EdTech during Covid-19” and was introduced to stakeholders — including key government officials and leading educators — at a workshop in August 2021.

CERI also focuses on other practical aspects of skill and workforce development. Given the importance of preparing the labour force for the future of work, including implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is unsurprising that CERI has turned its attention to Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) as well. 

Permeability in Cambodian Post-secondary Education and Training: A Growing Convergence, proposed that allowing students to transition between higher education and vocational training could reduce negative perceptions of TVET as a “dead-end track.” The study also suggested this type of mobility can increase agility within both educational pathways to respond to market demands and produce a new generation of more economically competitive citizens.

However, CERI’s research also looks at Cambodia’s emerging role in the worldwide network of academic and intellectual knowledge creation.

Published in February 2022, CERI’s second edited book, Cambodian Post-Secondary Education and Training in the Global Knowledge Societies is a collection of research that demonstrated CDRI’s commitment to education for Cambodia’s development. Aimed at fostering a post-secondary school system that provides students with pathways towards meaningful and lifelong learning, STEM pipelines and knowledge creation are integral aspects of this work. 

As one of the few think tanks conducting comprehensive and rigorous primary research in the country, CDRI’s work contributes directly to this vision of Cambodia participating in  global knowledge societies. 

“Research is new knowledge generation,” said CERI Research Associate, Muy Tieng Tek. 

“So in order for global knowledge societies to thrive, every individual has to contribute to knowledge generation.” 

The goal of all of CERI’s work is to create an educational system that works for Cambodian people and whatever specific focus CDRI’s committed researcher’s take, this will remain at the heart of their efforts.

“If we can continue reforming education, I anticipate Cambodian academics taking part in producing knowledge and critically looking at how they are teaching to improve themselves,” said Dr. Song. “We must learn from knowledge and exchange with others, but at the same time we must produce something that is rooted here, that is grounded here.”

This article is a part of a paid partnership with Cambodia Development Resource Institute celebrating their 30 Year Anniversary and highlighting their work over the past three decades . Follow CDRI and stay up to date with their projects on their Facebook page. Learn more about the partnership here.

The post A knowledge society: hopes and hurdles for the future of Cambodian education appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

This became even clearer to me when the pandemic struck while I was homeschooling my children.

Covid-19 and the associated challenges are connected, or so my daughter argues, to “the silliness of humans.” She is not convinced mankind is superior to other beings.

“We have the ability,” she acknowledges, “but we’re not using it wisely.” 

“We share 60% of the genetic material of bananas and we’re not as useful,” my son adds. 

This leads to a debate about what humans could do differently and how much progress we have made in spheres ranging from science to sports and culture. 

The fact is that Covid-19 has forced dramatic changes and a re-examination of innumerable aspects of our lives including schooling and our relationship with the natural world. In Singapore, as elsewhere, the link between human impact on the environment and pandemics has become increasingly clear. 

As people stayed inside during lockdowns, the natural world outside seemed to flourish. And with growing environmental awareness, it was perhaps natural that children, who stand to inherit the earth, became the unexpected educators of adults.

In the 21st century we have experienced multiple disease outbreaks including SARS, Ebola, Avian Flu, Swine Flu and now Covid-19. Scientists have pointed to various causes, but the clear common thread is the impact of human action on the natural world. 

In harnessing nature for our purposes, from construction to farming, ecosystems have been damaged and with increasing standardisation, biodiversity has been reduced even further, despite the need for genetic variety within species to withstand disease and survive. 

In Singapore, for instance, primates such as the Raffles banded langur are now critically endangered and an estimated 132 species of butterflies are considered extinct.  

There are approximately 1.67 million viruses yet to be identified on our planet, with  an estimated 631,000 to 827,000 that have the potential to infect humans. 

Climate change and changes to natural ecosystems have enabled microbes and disease-transmitting vectors to flourish. Deforestation and the wildlife trade have erased the buffers and boundaries between humans and wildlife, increasing the likelihood of disease transference across species.

In an increasingly interconnected world, these are not the only boundaries that have been affected. The level of cross-border travel and trade means that disease transmission occurs at an unprecedented rate and scale, as we have seen with Covid-19. 

So any meaningful solution must recognise the web of interdependence linking human health and wellbeing to that of plants, animals and the environmental system as a whole. 

As we were homeschooling our children prior to the pandemic, we suffered less obvious disruption to our school routine at the start of the ‘circuit breaker’ period, the height of Singapore’s Covid-19 restrictions.  

On the other hand, the supplementary activities that had provided social and nature engagement –  the nature walks and park visits, playdates and music classes – all came to a grinding halt. So too did the holidays that had helped expand the children’s horizons and worldview. 

It was during the circuit breaker that my daughter developed an avid interest in watching birds with her binoculars, a hobby that has endured. It was as if she sensed the need to connect with nature in some capacity, even if from a distance. 

It turns out that the importance of nature to human wellbeing is not restricted to disease prevention. The therapeutic capacity of the natural world is substantial, from providing cures and antidotes to addressing psychological ailments.

A 2019 University of Exeter study found that 120 minutes per week in natural environments is the minimum amount of time we need to reap the benefits of good health and psychological wellbeing. 

The therapeutic capacity of the natural world is substantial, from providing cures and antidotes to addressing psychological ailments

Interestingly, one of the few positive consequences of Singapore’s circuit breaker period and the enforced slowdown in the maintenance of green spaces was the flourishing of natural ecosystems and greater biodiversity. 

As once uncommon wildflowers grew, so too did insect populations such as bees and butterflies, as well as birds. Our family saw a Great Hornbill as it landed on our wall and other residents across the island reported similar sightings. 

One benefit of this growth has been a shift in focus by the National Parks Board (NParks) from developing Singapore as a ‘City in a Garden,’ with its associations of manicured landscapes, to making it a ‘City in Nature,’ allowing for more natural landscapes and greater natural diversity. 

The pandemic also prompted greater interest in gardening and urban farming. Aspiring gardeners cited reasons ranging from food self-sufficiency and, importantly, the need to reconnect with nature, to finally having time to spend on gardening. And NParks supported these efforts by leasing plots and providing a range of learning resources including online gardening tutorials and videos. 

Some time ago our family witnessed a palm tree being felled in our neighbourhood. My children were quite upset on the tree’s behalf. My husband pointed out that the tree may have posed a potential hazard by falling and hurting someone. We were fortunate, he said, to be living in a city that took nature seriously and where greenery had been a vital part of urban planning from the start.

“So rather than focusing on that one tree, think about the others that are being planted every day,” he reasoned. 

“So a tree is totally replaceable?” my son countered. 

“And if a person dies, that’s fine because another is born?” my daughter added.

Although in my capacity as parent and teacher, I tried to offer alternative perspectives to balance my children’s views, it occurred to me – as it so often does – that I would do well to listen and learn from them. 

Maybe it is that very combination of humility about ourselves and respect for all of nature that we will need to steer ourselves toward a better, shared future.

Alaka Skinner, Ph.D., is an author, storyteller and executive coach. She writes for children and adults about sustainability, empathy and diversity. Her children’s book, “Are You Listening?”, has been featured by BBC regional radio and the Greenpeace Storytelling team.

The post Parenting in the pandemic provides lessons in nature and humanity appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

The global health crisis also has created new challenges and opportunities for reforming higher education. With ASEAN continuing to grapple with the pandemic and its impact on the regional economy, the education sector must rapidly adapt to new challenges.

Historically many universities within ASEAN have Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) and double-degree programmes. The missing component is a clear strategy to build bridges for practical cooperation that increases the quality of higher education and regional competitiveness. 

Different systems of education with different histories pullulate. Every country in the world has drafted its educational approach grounded in its cultural values and economic needs. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans spread throughout Africa and Asia, leaving behind their administrative systems, railroads and a variety of educational establishments. 

Some ASEAN member nations inherited the British education system through hundreds of seminaries, sodalities, schools and universities espousing English as a medium of instruction. The Philippines evolved its approach with the country’s Spanish heritage while also adopting English as a medium of instruction. 

The kindergarten was developed as early as 1837 by Friedrich Froebel, a German leftist and educator. During the next two centuries, numerous countries followed his system and developed children’s education stretching from kindergarten through grade 12.

That spirit of development must continue as the pandemic forces change on all aspects of society, including higher education.

Motivation to innovate and thrive in a digital-first economy has become more intense in the last two years during the health crisis. Every university wants to innovate to survive and remain part of the evolving educational ecosystem. 

The ASEAN University Network (AUN) serves as a platform for leading advanced education institutions within the region to work together to reach new heights.

The network came into being in 1995 when the AUN charter was inked by ministers responsible for advanced education in member countries. Although formed to develop a regional collaboration, the charter failed to create a cohesive ASEAN identity and programmes to narrow the development gap. 

In the last 25 years, AUN developed several initiatives. Sadly, different education policies, systems and standards in member countries did not share a vision to foster high-quality degree programmes.

The time has come for ASEAN to establish robust joint-degree programmes. Call it the E-A, E-AEC or E-ASEAN degree, the initiative would be crafted with a standard curriculum taught in English (E) only. 

There are four tangible benefits of the E-ASEAN degree strategy. The programme would reduce disparities in curricula and enhance the quality of degree programs within the block, facilitate overall English proficiency in the region, act as an equaliser by using similar educational pedagogies and technologies and help attract foreign talent to study under expert teachers using common standards.

A joint degree will require forging partnerships in a new ecosystem where member countries value shared curriculum, technologies and joint operational initiatives. This will lead to better experiences and career opportunities for students and the possibility of new products such as ASEAN university games, seminars and conferences, travel services and merchandise.

Providing an ASEAN student card, visa and work permit also would make the degree more attractive to prospective students.

Universities are critical to leading significant societal and global challenges through effective transnational collaboration

As proof of its possibility, there are plans underway in the European Union to create a distinct EU degree with similar goals.

Member nations must develop a distinctive approach for an ASEAN degree during these trying times. If implemented, the degree would promote mobility and the employability of a highly educated and skilled workforce across the region. English proficiency is an added value that could drastically improve the curriculum quality and delivery mechanisms.

A core belief bolstering this project is that universities are critical to leading significant societal and global challenges through effective transnational collaboration. In the forthcoming years, such strategies will be essential for sustained growth entrepreneurship and the development of new employment opportunities. 

Undoubtedly, implementing such a flagship initiative will require collaboration at the national and regional levels, but a strong partnership through transparent policies could ensure the establishment of a joint ASEAN degree. 

In 20 years, all ASEAN countries will become ageing societies. A joint degree will help build the capacity to deal with this looming crisis. The programme also will create new opportunities for young graduates to work anywhere in the region.

Looking at the ASEAN track record in education, research, innovation policy and funding, this goal may seem impossible. The implementation would require member countries to reduce all barriers to university collaboration in education and research. This unique strategy also requires new momentum from the bloc’s 10 governments to take action through legislation, policy and funding.

ASEAN universities, however, will become more outward-looking and competitive globally through such a bold initiative. In the end, ASEAN’s attractiveness as a study destination and global partner in education, research and innovation will receive a necessary and lasting boost. 

Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D., is a Fulbright fellow from Seattle working at Assumption University, Bangkok.

The post The time has come for the E-ASEAN degree appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

In Cambodia, signs of pre-Covid daily life have begun to return, as schools across the country open and students, teachers and administrators settle into augmented-routines that are a welcome change from the disruption of the past two years. Now, with lockdowns and red-zones looming in the rear view and despite Omicron surging, there is opportunity for reflection on the challenges, lessons learned and lasting repercussions on the nation’s education system. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on student learning,” explained Asia Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Anthony Gill. “Even though significant efforts have been put into assuring [sic] continuous learning during the school closures, there is likely to be a large learning loss for many students, especially for the most vulnerable ones.”

ADB, a key development partner in Cambodia’s education sector since the early 2000s, has committed a $20 billion Covid-19 response package and is working with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) to address impacts of the pandemic. 

According to Gill, the MoEYS Education Management Information System has published no statistical evidence of increased dropout rates — a key metric —  however, he admits the country is facing a “learning crisis” that has driven students and educators to “alternative arrangements” to navigate the situation. 

The need for these “alternative arrangements” was born out in a February 2021 report from international NGO Save the Children, one of few published studies looking into Covid-19 impacts on Cambodia’s primary education. 

While longer-lasting consequences of months out of the classroom will likely reveal themselves over time, the study highlighted a number of key factors multiplying the challenges facing students. 

Unsurprisingly, the report found a lack of access to learning materials and tools for distance learning proved to be the leading difficulties in connecting students and educators, especially in rural and remote areas. 

Echoing these findings is Savy Ung, country director for Caring for Cambodia, an international education NGO operating in and around Siem Reap since 2003. 

Responsible for operations at the group’s 21 partner schools, he saw the impacts of Covid-19 on his staff’s ability to reach students, although he also perceived resilience that was cause for optimism.

“The pandemic has closed schools and made the entire school system stuck: organisation, teaching, human resource management,” Savy explained. “It’s caused a lot of problems but Covid-19 has also taught us a lot. The teachers have been able to adapt to the pandemic situation at all of our schools.”

While schools across the country are on a morning/afternoon split schedule, enabling classroom social distancing that may become part of the readjusted normal, only months ago, even this “alternative arrangement” was out of the question.

Remaining open throughout the pandemic, integral to CFC’s operations was the use of technology facilitated by teachers like Morn Sokcheng. One of the organisation’s 11 ICT teachers, the support his team provided to students and staff proved vital to the integration of technology in the school’s teaching strategy.

Even before the pandemic, weekly training sessions for CFC teachers provided many with a digital literacy foundation that better prepared them for the coming challenges. However, not all instructors were equally comfortable with the shift to distanced learning.

“Some of the teachers didn’t have as much technology skills, so they needed more help from ICT teachers,” Sokcheng explained. “We had to make sure that we were ready to provide the support that students and staff needed.”

This support came in the form of refresher exercises on Google docs, Google forms and other useful programs, as well group chats where teachers could ask for help with specific platforms and digital tools. Sokcheng and the other ICT teachers also were regularly tapped for troubleshooting when unforeseen difficulties arose during lessons.

“If the teachers, administrators or even the principal had an issue with something regarding technology, they could message us directly through a group chat,” he said. “We could give them support immediately and help them solve the problem.” 

Another international NGO focused on education in Cambodia, Aide et Action, also provided tech support and training to public school teachers, administrators and students over the last two years. However, upskilling teachers on the fly in the middle of a pandemic proved a difficult task. 

Project Director Marong Chhoeung cited a general lack of ICT skills among government school teachers as a leading obstacle, while also pushing teachers and students to expand their knowledge in the face of this new challenge.

“Before Covid, we never expected that our teachers would need to use ICT,” he said. “But the teachers have changed their approach to teaching; they began using ICT tools to upgrade their own capacity.”

These technologies undoubtedly mitigated the learning loss for students across the country. However, as in other less-developed countries, Cambodia’s lack of internet coverage and limited smartphone access meant low-tech solutions were necessary to supplement digital learning.

“Most of the children, they cannot access online learning well, especially in the rural areas,” Marong explained. “So we helped some target schools with their online learning, but we also supported small group learning at the community base.”

For Kimheut Cheoun, secondary assistant at CFC’s Aranh High School school in Siem Reap, closing the gaps where technology couldn’t reach meant packing up supplies, heading out to area communities and sometimes doing a bit of detective work. 

“If there was a student that wasn’t present in online lessons, we would always try to find out where they were and what they were doing,” she said. “We would message their friends, call them and their parents and eventually we would go to their house to try to see the situation that was keeping them from class.”

CFC launched a mobile homework program from July to November of 2021 through which teachers like Kimhuet travelled in vans equipped with wifi hotspots to provide learning materials and mobile data cards, assign homework and hold socially distanced lessons. Often taking place at local pagodas serving as ad-hoc community centres, teachers would chart progress and maintain contact and relationships with students.

“It helped create a stronger connection between the teachers and the students and it helped build trust between the parents and the teachers,” she said. 

Visiting 10 communities and reaching 430 students daily, some CFC teachers had to travel 70 kilometres (43 miles) to meet students forced to migrate as their parents searched for work during the pandemic. While learning has undoubtedly suffered during Covid-19, Kimhuet believes this commitment will have a lasting effect on students’ lives.

“If the teachers don’t care about their students, they are more likely to drop out,” she explained.

With schools open, the focus of educators has shifted to getting students back into classrooms and analysing the impacts of the learning loss they have experienced. Marong and his team are providing guidance and training to the Cambodian government’s District Training Monitoring Teams (DTMT). Charged with screening students who have fallen behind, the groups interview and assess slow learners and provide them with additional support during the first three months of the school year.

Similarly, the Academic Support programme at Caring for Cambodia was reorganised to use a testing process to identify students who fell behind. Slow learners and students identified as being at risk of dropping out are monitored and provided with special attention and assistance to help them catch up and return to their appropriate grade level. 

Savy credits the return of nearly 100% of CFC students to his teachers’ commitment during the pandemic and the personal attention students receive in the Academic Support programme. Though the work towards recovery is just getting started and CFC is still struggling with how to keep technology in the hands of staff, Savy, Kimhuet and many others in the sector feel teachers are better equipped to deal with whatever uncertainty the future might bring. 

“We learned a lot of lessons. About technology, lesson management and problem solving,” Kimhuet said. “Due to this Covid-19 situation, the students are stronger, the teachers are more experienced and have more skills. If a pandemic were to happen again, we would be ready.”

This article has been written in partnership with Caring for Cambodia, as a part of an ongoing series exploring education in Cambodia and the steps being made to bring hope to future generations. Find out more here.

The post A lasting legacy: reflections on learning in the pandemic appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Thailand’s conventional teaching practices have relied on rote learning for decades, which has led to one-size curricula and methods inherited from the colonial era. The antiquated assessment system of using grades, marks and standardised exams does not produce desired skills and outcomes. The current Thai system has also thrived on a hierarchical social regimen glorified as a sign of the country’s unique culture.

Classroom instruction has been defined as an interactive phenomenon between teachers, students and instructional resources. Sadly, the quality of these three fundamental components in any educational system’s success is seldom thoroughly analysed. 

Weaknesses in these traditional components have also led to the creation of elite schools where the cost of a diploma or degree is beyond the reach of ordinary families. Despite an avalanche of literature on all facets of classroom teaching, pertinent costs and benefits of higher education remain unsolved. 

Following the regimen in the classrooms is more important than asking questions in Thailand. Consequently, Thai students have mastered the art of ‘cram, jam and pass the exam’ to obtain diplomas or degrees. Thai universities also are handicapped due to their excessive obsession with command, control and government regulations. 

Thailand also suffers from an unwarranted obsession with becoming an advanced country without enhancing higher education quality. Over time, these barriers have been solidified and become an impediment to higher education reform in Thailand. 

In addition to poor classroom teaching, the research output of Thai universities is meagre. This is evident from the current Google Scholar Citation Transparent Ranking published every six months by Webometrics, a Spanish NGO. The list, which indicates faculty work quality, includes 4,239 universities worldwide and a clear dominance by the United States with 694 universities providing more than 463 million research citations. 

The combined output of 38 Thai universities over the most recent data was 1.5 million citations. Singapore, with just ten listed universities, had 6.64 million citations in the same timeframe. Thailand’s low citation rate is indirectly linked to a lack of English proficiency, a significant factor leading to poor advising practices and research output in the country’s universities. 

In the 2021 edition of the EF English Proficiency Index, the result of an annual exam administered by an international education firm, Thailand placed 100 out of 112 countries and 22 out of 24 in Asia. Thailand ranked below fellow ASEAN countries Singapore (ranked number 4), Malaysia (28), Vietnam (66), Indonesia (80), Myanmar (93) and Cambodia (97).

For nearly two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, Thai universities also have grappled with a tsunami of digitisation, online learning implementation, new modes of student engagement and employability issues. These developments have been missing links in the Thai system for decades. 

The Covid crisis has created ample opportunities to develop digital platforms for Thai students and their families. As online learning becomes normalised, more effort is needed to ensure high levels of student engagement.

Establishing eUniversity and online teaching platforms must go beyond online learning management systems or videoconferencing. There needs to be a complete overhaul of an antiquated system of rote learning. 

Thai universities need to develop sophisticated digital tools to explain complex scientific, engineering and business theories. Creative approaches to health and environmental issues need to be internalised. Context-based teaching with real-life examples from the current crisis in the business world is likely to ignite student interest in online learning sessions. 

Proper use of artificial intelligence and data analytics can also help cultivate more robust, research-oriented approaches to teaching and learning. The rapid integration of social media, mobile devices, analytics and cloud computing affects education at all levels. 

Every service sector tries to realise maximum value, especially during uncertain times for the public. The criteria for Thai families planning to send children to higher education institutions should not be different. Thai universities must adjust curriculum, tuition fees and service charges like any other business to build more agile organisations. 

Ensuring employability is one of the primary goals of every university

Students joining universities have expectations, which are crucial for universities to meet and can be achieved if the chasm between industry and academia is effectively bridged. Developing mobile apps or interactive websites can help guide students interested in the various subjects that are available in diploma and degree programmes. These digital platforms can quickly provide suitable courses and specialisation to empower students with the latest competencies and skills. 

Ensuring employability is one of the primary goals of every university. Since the onset of the pandemic, the business world has developed new expectations for Thai university graduates. Diplomas and degrees are no longer enough. 

Many Thai universities boast high levels of intellectual capital, conflating faculty wisdom, experience and expertise during the global health crisis. The pandemic has created a window of opportunity for universities and business schools to establish renewed rapport with industries and understand the expectations of companies. 

More efforts are needed to enlighten students about new expectations and equip them with the latest knowledge and skills to gain a firm foothold in the corporate world. Soft skills, such as communication, are also essential for managing new expectations from industries.

Universities can demonstrate the value of academic programmes by expanding mobile apps and portals like YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. These vital marketing channels can spread awareness of the expectations that businesses and industries have for graduates. 

In short, the business models of Thai universities need tweaking. 

There should be a radically different approach incorporating a massive transformation to improve the quality of education and create competent human capital for the post-Covid era. Thailand can learn a lot from the Singapore education and human resource development models. 

Globalisation is centre stage in the contemporary world. New and emerging technologies are harnessing the power of the internet. Expanding higher education also requires learner-centricity and drastic improvements in the quality of programmes, courseware and delivery systems. 

As Thailand prepares for an expansion of digital learning, the only way forward is addressing connectivity and capacity issues and developing quality courseware content complying with international standards for every section of Thai society. 

These significant realities converge at the intersection of school education and higher education, two systems that every country has relied on to ensure economic growth and sustainability for generations. All of that is now in jeopardy. Covid-19 has exposed the flaws of this convergence by displaying the inability of schools to deliver equitable, inclusive and innovative education. 

The increasingly volatile, complex and ambiguous situation requires a new educational ecosystem for Thai universities. Through these adjustments, the country will be able to produce agile learners who can adapt to new business environments, expectations and opportunities created by the Covid-19 crisis.

Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D., is a Fulbright fellow from Seattle currently working at Assumption University, Bangkok.

The post Thailand’s universities need to tweak their model appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

In the rural and remote areas that Thanh travels to, access to equitable vocational education and careers counselling remains largely out of reach for the many ethnic minority populations living there. But with current vocational training reforms and a new National Gender Equality Strategy announced in 2021, Thanh and like-minded colleagues are determined to reduce the disparities between rural and urban populations, particularly rural women who remain the lowest educated and most likely to depend on subsistence farming.

Than’s mobile training teaches professional cooking skills to students from the Hmong, Dao, and Xa Pho ethnic groups. Each class typically lasts three to four months, with Thanh teaching in a village for three consecutive days per month. Travelling to villages is a challenge, Thanh said, particularly during the rainy season. 

“Sometimes I have to stop on my way to wait for a flood to be over so that I can cross a stream,” she explained. “But it has been a rewarding experience, I am moved when local people travel or walk up to 20 kilometres from their villages to the communal house to attend my class.”

The classes teach untrained rural populations not only how to cook nutritious meals from local produce but also how to earn a living from the work. About three-quarters of Vietnam’s poor residents live in remote and rural areas like the villages to which Thanh travels. Their location is a barrier to accessing quality education and subsequently limits their earning potential.

Research from the World Bank research found that in 2020, 73% of Vietnam’s poorest citizens were from ethnic minority heritage although they accounted for just 15% of the total population.

In addition to her mobile classes, Thanh also works in Lai Cai city’s vocational training centre and pilots new training material to impart relevant knowledge and skills needed for Vietnam’s job market. 

The new material is part of a wider project supported by international nonprofit Aide et Action in partnership with The European Union, Standard Chartered Bank and local civil society organisation Northwest Development to address skills gaps and the market needs of youth aged 16 to 30 years old and local industries.

While Vietnam’s labour force participation rate was high at 74.4 % in December 2020, only 22.6% of the employed population in 2019 was trained. A General Statistic Office report in 2020 revealed only 12.3% of employed females in rural areas were trained.

With a shortage of skilled workers and technicians with practical training, Vietnam’s government has put vocational skills training and boosting employment at the heart of its development goals. In Vietnam’s 2015 Law on Vocational Education, supporting craftsmen and skilled workers in vocational training, especially in traditional vocations in rural areas, is a key objective along with partnerships with the private sector and NGOs.

Thanh is among 949 teachers in upper secondary school and vocational training centres who will receive new vocational training material as part of an Aide et Action pilot programme in the coming months. 

The project, “Increasing access to livelihood opportunities for ethnic minority youth through the promotion of career development entrepreneurship initiatives,” is a 42-month project that began in 2019. A key activity is the revision and development of vocational training and career orientation for grades ten to 12 to meet the needs of youth and businesses.

During initial research for the project, Aide et Action found the top professions secondary school students wanted to learn were cooking (16.7%), commerce (13.6%), hotel and restaurant management (11.4%), healthcare (10.6%) and tour-guiding (9.85%). 

Over the course of 2021, vocational training books on four subjects including cooking, embroidery, weaving and tour-guiding were finalised and printed in collaboration with the General Department of Vocational Education and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. The books are set to be distributed to 63 provinces and cities across Vietnam during a scheduled launch in early 2022.

In SaPa district, 67-year-old Lý Mẩy Chạn, a teacher of Dao traditional ethnic embroidery, welcomes the initiative. Even after more than 20 years of teaching, she still struggles to access high-quality training materials with detailed guidance she can use. 

“Detailed guidance will help students to practice on their own,” Chạn said. 

Chan qualified in embroidery in 1998 through a programme implemented by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to teach women how to customise their traditional embroidery and natural dyeing skills to produce designs and patterns to appeal to an international market. Before then she worked as a subsistence farmer, growing food crops only to meet the needs of their family, without turning a profit.

“I used to be so poor that I could barely make ends meet,” she said. “It was hard for me to raise my children because of how little money I made from only growing rice at the time.”

Chạn now runs her own business, Giac Mo Do Cooperative, which has seven full-time employees and 200 to 300 seasonal workers, all of whom are women. Many of the seasonal workers are past students helping to fulfill her vision of keeping Dao traditions alive while creating job opportunities outside of agriculture. 

Aide et Action’s focus on providing rural teachers like Chạn and her students with technical know-how and guidance aligns with Vietnam’s National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030, which aims to reduce the proportion of female workers in the agricultural sector to below 30% by 2025 and below 25% by 2030.

“I want all the values and traditions of my ethnicity to be preserved,” said Chạn, describing the process as long and complicated, with embroidery as the last step. 

First and central to the process is the cultivation and harvest of indigo plants, which are cut and mixed with lime to produce a dye imparting the signature blue for which indigo is famous. Dyeing new products can take at least two months as fabrics are dyed and dried repeatedly to achieve different depths of colour.  

During Vietnam’s second wave of Covid-19, during which shuttered schools and businesses in Lao Cai province, Chạn managed to teach the students living in her village to embroider by inviting them individually to her home for colour-mixing instruction. After the personal guidance, they were each able to finish working at home before bringing the final product for Chan to evaluate.

In a 2020 assessment of Vietnam’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training Reform, the Asian Development Bank recommended training opportunities be made more relevant to the needs of remote rural areas by adopting community-based training methodologies and promoting decent work attracting women and girls. 

Aide et Action’s research reiterated this recommendation, revealing that a common objective among young women is to find work near their homes or within their districts due to travel costs and fears of being too far from their communities.

“By teaching kids and women in my village what I know, they can also earn some extra money to escape poverty,” Chạn said. 

In Hoa Binh province, brocade weaver and teacher Ha Thi Huyen too shared a similar vision of strengthening traditional knowledge and enthusiasm for local crafts while building connections to a market.

Huyen described brocade weaving, a traditional practice of spinning thread, framing, creating patterns and weaving fabric, as “crystallising the culture of the Tay ethnic group.” She feared a lack of interest in brocade weaving in her village signaled a loss of culture, but she remained determined to make traditional crafts popular and economically viable.

“In the past, in my village of Muong Chieng, almost every house had a loom, but now it’s no longer there, mothers and grandmothers are all old while the young have left to study,” Huyen explained.

Huyen accepted an invitation in 2021 from the Center for Vocational Training in Da Bac district to be a lecturer in their pilot programme using brocade weaving as vocational training. She was eager to offer educational opportunities for youth closer to home. 

In Huyen’s classes, students learn how to create products that can be marketed and sold to tourists. By the end of the year she had already spent a month teaching 18 female students, sharing the basic knowledge and skills needed to work with looms and weave patterns of birds, flowers, trees and more.

Reigniting excitement in traditional culture among students is a highlight of the job for Huyen: “Weaving not only helps maintain the cultural beauty and identity of our people but supports the women in the commune to improve their livelihood.”

Christine Redmond is the regional communication manager and gender advisor for international development organisation Aide et Action and a Cambodia-based communications specialist for social issues related to Southeast Asia education and labour.

Photos: Courtesy of Aide et Action

This article has been written by Aide et Action as a part of a partnership with Southeast Asia Globe to highlight the need for equal access to education in the region. Find out more here.

The post Vietnam vocational training delivers skills with a future appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

On 20 November 1959 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, followed 30 years later by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This November, World Children’s Day coincided with Cambodia’s decision to lift pandemic restrictions on schools. Southeast Asia Globe spoke with Sotheary El, a partnership and advocacy specialist with Save the Children Cambodia, to discuss the most pressing issues facing the Kingdom’s youth, as well as what she believes is next for the country’s education system.

What do you hope reopening in-person schools will accomplish?

It is always a better situation for a student to physically show up at school and interact with their peers and their teachers. As well as enjoying the real learning environment that they can only obtain at a school. 

I am really optimistic that safely reopening our schools will bring the real learning environment to their lives and create a more effective learning atmosphere that they can really enjoy.

How have students been affected by remote education?

During the pandemic children needed access to digital technology that most households could not afford. Children, especially those from vulnerable households located in the countryside, really had no means to access education. Without a learning aid package for those children, the divide between students living in cities versus the countryside will only widen because of the pandemic. That’s why a comprehensive aid package, supported by the government and civil society, is so important.

Looking forward to 2022, I do believe there will be implications to our future caused by the issues from 2020 and 2021. For example, last year during the final high school examination, students automatically passed. Because of the prolonged pandemic, it is not possible to ensure strict examination or quality control about the knowledge level of those students. There should be additional investment on the university level to ensure that students […] have the knowledge they need to take on the higher education curriculum.

There are also a lot of students who, when they return to school, may fail out of future exams or had to drop out of school as a consequence of Covid-19. We need to figure out what the best aid package should be to bring those students up to speed and back to school.

What are the main lessons the education sector has learned from Covid-19?

Through the pandemic we realised the importance of technology to support education at all levels, especially in the countryside. Our organisation, alongside the rest of the private and public sector, learned how to play a crucial role in supporting the government’s efforts to give children access to home-learning packages and the technology that would allow them to continue their education. We need to continue making access to educational technology a priority. By helping the government provide children with financial and technological support and assistance they needed, that in turn supported the livelihood of their families.

What needs to be done to support the education sector in Cambodia?

One of the most important things is to keep prioritising our government’s public expenditure on education. According to our commitment at the Global Partnership for Education, our Ministry of Education is allocating up to 20% of national public expenditure on education. By doing this, we can also use those funds to improve the quality of our teachers by investing in school management and materials.

What is the importance of education in Cambodia’s national development?

Education is really a significant driver to promote human and economic development across the Kingdom. Education is the only way that we can restore and advance the country. Especially because we want to ensure that our human resources, or labour force, is competitive compared to other countries, especially within the ASEAN region. This is so very important because we don’t want to see our children leaving as migrant workers or falling victim to modern day slavery.

What is the significance of recognising events like World Children’s Day?

In Cambodia, we like to say that a child is like a bamboo shoot because if you nurture it in the right environment it will become a bamboo tree. World Children’s Day is a good reminder of the need for that proper environment and a reminder that investing in children is always the right investment. We should use this day to educate our children about their rights [and] everyone else about the accountability, about the obligation, that we all have to our children.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The post School reopenings signal fresh start for Cambodia appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.