Public schools have finally reopened after a long period of time due to the COVID-19 situation in Cambodia, which means it’s time for the students to get back to their study-habits. Most of the students are very happy to get back to school, meet their friends and teachers again but some are not ready because of their family’s situation, often due to global economic impacts of COVID-19.
CFI’s Education Advocacy team is working with public schools to ensure children return to education and resolve issues of non-attendance, ensuring children return to their education.
As soon as we hear of any CFI students who are not attending school, we immediately follow up with the family to get more information about why their kids are not going to school. The family told us they are not ready to send the kids back to school due to the COVID-19 out-break. Some families have no income and the oldest members of the family are sick and have no one to take care of them, and other families need their kids to look after the house so the parents can go out to earn extra money. Based on the problems that their family is facing right now makes it really difficult for the student to go back to school.
The Education Advocacy team visits families to have a discussion and find solutions for how CFI can support the family situation so the children can get back to school as normal. After the discussion, the EA team brings back ideas from the family to discuss with our social work team. Sometimes we will provide rice support to those families for a few months till they are stable with their job and can support their family. Other times the social work and education advocacy team provide counseling to the student who doesn’t want to get back to school about their future plan and encourage them to study to get their dream job. Some students just need help fixing their bicycles so they can make their way back to school.
One example is Sokha, she is in Grade 6, but due to the economic impact of COVID-19, her family could not afford for her to return to school. The Education Advocacy team has stepped in, Sokha has now returned to school to complete her final primary school year, giving her a great chance to go on to secondary school.
Look out for an update next month on CFI student’s return to the Learning center!“
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