Mini Schools
The Mini Schools project focuses on providing education at grade 1 and 2 level in communities where the nearest primary school is too far away for families to be able to send their young children. Donate to this ProjectThe Mini Schools project has two components:
a) Construction and repair of basic classrooms, libraries and toilets; and
b) Running costs and family support.
The budget amount of $30,000 is for the management of seven Mini Schools over a period of 12 months. Repair costs amount to $14,000 and operating costs to $16,000. The seven schools are located in various rural communities within a 80km radius of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Communities served by the Mini Schools project are small villages where families generally depend on subsistence farming for their income. The nearest Primary school is some distance away and there is not sufficient density of population to warrant a local school at this time.
Families living in rural communities are frequently reluctant to send their children to school for a variety of reasons which include their own perception as to the value of education, cost issues, and proximity of a school. Such families are extremely poor and ambivalent about beginning the process of educating their children.
As these children grow older, whilst they may then be able to travel to school, they are academically behind others and likely to drop out of school early if they participate at all. While registration rates in primary school are high (91.9% 2005 MoEYS figs), dropout rates in grades 1 – 6 are 46.9% (2005 MoEYS figs).
For children living in small and more remote communities, Mini Schools have been successful in starting them in education at an appropriate age. They provide:
- For Children - access to the first grades of school within a short distance from home; and
- For Families - initial financial support to meet the first outgoings associated with school.
The expected situation at the end of the project can be summarised as follows:
- 7 local village schools will be more structurally in working order.
- A further group of students will have completed year 2 studies and be able to graduate to the district primary school.
- The practice of educating children from an appropriate age will be more ingrained in the local community.
Mini School at Kompong Krasing
Toilet requiring repair
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