Congratulations to the 28 teachers who successfully completed the first module of KrY’s training for new preschool teachers in Phnom Penh!

This first module of the training lasted for six days from 4th to 9th April and was organized by the ECRC (Early Childhood Resource Center) in collaboration with KrY’s team. The new teachers trained will then join their pre-schools in different provinces. Those pre-schools are part of the Happy Cambodian Children Program, KrY’s Pre-school Education Project in Preah Vihear and a preschool supported by another NGO, Jean Cyril School (JCS), in the province of Kampong Cham.

The six days training was focused on building up the capacities of new pre-school teachers so that they can learn about key teaching strategies, pre-school pedagogy and class management as well as the technical aspects of teaching and lessons planning. They also learned how to recycle materials available locally into game for the children so that they can enjoy free-play sessions during class. The training also focused on how to use games and play for educational purposes such as learning how to count through play in terms of pre-mathematics, sing songs to develop children’s language abilities or how to enhance interactions with and between children during class as it will help their socio-emotional development.

Mrs. Thea Kunthy, a professional trainer from the Pre-School Teacher Training Center, mentioned after the training that she was happy to be able to share her knowledge with the younger generation of teachers during the training. In many provinces of Cambodia, especially in remote and rural areas, there is a lack of qualified pre-school teachers and, in some pre-schools, teachers have never been trained. This 6 days training thus provide teachers with knowledge on pedagogy, the pre-school curriculum, as well as lessons planning and class management strategies which helps them to improve the quality of the early childhood education they provide.

Ms. Kiy Socheat, a preschool teacher from Phum Thmey in the province of Ratanakiri, said that this training was really interesting for her as she could get a lot of new knowledge on what kind of activities can help develop the children’s language, or pre-mathematics skills. Indeed, it is important for children to build up strong foundations in language and pre-mathematics as well as develop social and emotional skills to smooth the transition into primary school in order to avoid drop out especially in rural and remote areas. She said that children are young bamboos who need to grow and become strong to help develop the society and nation.

During the training, the participants also had the opportunity to share experiences with each other and seek for advices from the expert trainers from KrY and the Preschool Training Center of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). Moreover, KrY wants to thank all the teachers who joined the training warmly for their active participation during the training and their engagement into improving the education provided to young children in Cambodia. KrY and the participating teachers also want to thank the Kinchan Foundation warmly for their constant support to education in Cambodia through the Happy Cambodian Children Program.

Participants from pre-schools supported by other projects were also grateful for this training opportunity and for being able to connect and learn with other teachers and experts in early childhood education. Finally, KrY would like to thank all the partners involved in this training for their trust, support and engagement. Indeed, KrY is constantly seeking to improve the content of the training through the feedback and support of its partners for better early childhood education in Cambodia.

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