Education for many children living in rural Cambodia is expensive and out of reach. The primary barriers preventing children from attending relate to entry, transportation, and alternative family income support. Our program targets the barriers preventing children from attending and succeeding in school by providing the resources needed to enroll, attend, and succeed in school. Our model helps to minimize the number of students that need to repeat grades. We also incentivize students to attend school – providing monthly rice rewards for students attending more than 85% of their classes. Our program identifies students in danger of repeating grades and provides them with supporting services. By providing an educational pathway for children to prosper – we help them Become More.

While many children are initially enrolled in primary school in Cambodia, some rural areas still lack basic access to education. Areas that have the least access to education also suffer from the highest dropout rates. This is especially true for children that are marginalized or otherwise disadvantaged. Nearly 25% of the children in Grade 3 are not able to write a single word in a dictation test, and only 27% of 3-5 year olds are developmentally on track in literacy and numeracy. By the time children are 17, more than half (55%) will have dropped out of school. The primary reasons students dropping out include inadequate nutrition, inability to study/prepare for school, low quality teaching, and irregular school attendance. For those not dropping out of school, only 6 out of 10 (60%) pass the national high school exam (2016). Since studying at university requires completion of high school, those that dropout prior to completing high school are not eligible. For children currently enrolled in first grade, only 10% will statistically complete high school 12 years from now.

Education consists of 6 years of primary school, 3 years of lower secondary school, and 3 years of high school. School attendance is a major problem for many Cambodian children, with over 7% of students missing more than 3 consecutive months of school each year subsequent to health problems and household responsibilities. Additionally, in rural regions, more than 50% of students regularly arrive at school late. The vast majority of classrooms (78%) are overcrowded with more than 41 students. Teachers in rural regions are also less qualified and earn significantly less than teachers in urban areas. Students in rural regions of Cambodia are 4 times less likely to attain a baseline level of proficiency in mathematics, and only 28% complete grade 7 prior to their 15th birthday. The confluence of these factors results in nearly 1 in 3 children (29%) repeating a grade, at least one time, before reaching high school.

Schools throughout rural Cambodia struggle to provide basic resources to students. Of the primary schools operating throughout Cambodia, around 42% do not have access to water, and over 17% do not provide any form of latrine. Rural regions of Cambodia suffer from even lower access to water and latrines, and have a much higher teacher-to-pupil ratio. Rural regions also have lower primary school attendance rates with less families able to afford education, or even the opportunity cost associated with losing the child’s contribution to family income. Complicating the picture further is the fact that not all schools offer all grades. More precisely, around 66% of remote schools in rural Cambodia do not offer the full range of grades (1-6), subsequent to the additional barriers experienced in these regions.

The Cambodian government indicates that inclusive education is a priority, stating: “The ministry’s immediate objective is to ensure that all Cambodian children and youth have equal opportunities to access quality education, consistent with the Constitution and the government’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, regardless of social status, geography, ethnicity, religion, language, gender and physical form”. Given significant barriers, however, the government also recognizes that challenges remain to provide education in remote regions and that appropriate strategies are needed in order to reach these children. Schools in rural areas in Cambodia often take place in basic structures or open-air environments with no electricity, clean water, or latrines – with poorly qualified teachers and very few resources. Individuals from disadvantaged groups (handicapped, female, rural, low-income), are especially limited in accessing education. These factors significantly impact the quality and provisioning opportunities related to education.

At Become More, we believe that educating children in rural Cambodia needs to be done in a way that minimizes grade repetition, maximizes the use-value of resources in programs, and provides for the essential needs of students. We work with primary schools in rural Cambodia to ensure that students have access to safe water, bathroom facilities, and soap. Our approach to education connects disadvantaged children to the classroom by providing books, uniforms, tuition fees, transportation, and tutoring programs. We also incentivize students to attend school – providing monthly rice rewards for students attending more than 85% of their classes. We identify students in danger of repeating grades and provide supporting services to improve their performance. We believe in providing access to education – the gateway to opportunity.