Children and adults in the remote village of Pakle, Cambodia, are enjoying the wonders of learning in their new school, as Editor Maureen Bathgate discovered during a recent visit.

Teacher Neang Chhun explains the latest reading assignment to adult literacy students (from left) Khean Savonn and Vin Sreng.
Photo: Jerry Galea/Oxfam AUS

Teacher Mr Neang Chhun stands at the front of the classroom, chalk in hand, showing the children how to write the Cambodian alphabet. They look up from their books with wide eyes, eager to learn and soak up as much knowledge as they can.

Today it's the Grade 3 and 4 classes in these seats; tonight it will be some of their Mums and Dads. You see, the newly-built Pakle Primary School in Kratie Province, northern Cambodia, is not just about giving the children a chance at a better life, it's about doing the same for the adults as well.

Until 2004, students in Pakle, a remote village of 847 people located about 85km north of Kratie town, went to school in a dilapidated bamboo and grass building that was literally falling down around them. The school had old, broken desks and chairs, few reading books and only offered classes for Grades 1-3. When students finished Grade 3 they went to work with their families.

When Oxfam Australia first went to Pakle, villagers identified a new school building as one of their greatest needs. With Oxfam providing the funds and some supplies, and the villagers contributing the land, labour and other materials, construction started in July 2004 and finished 3½ months later.

Before the school opened, Mr Chhun, who is also the School Director, visited every family in the village to urge them to send their children to school. "I explained...that we have a new school building, that the teachers would be sent from outside with high knowledge and that the children would be well educated."

Since the school opened, student numbers have increased from 90 to 231, of which 107 are girls. It's quite a feat considering many families are poor and need to keep the children at home to work or look after younger siblings. There are now also six grades offered at the school, giving kids greater learning opportunities.

Ask Grade 6 student Chhorn Dara what he likes most about going to school and says very simply, "the new building".

"The old school building was very difficult, especially during the wet season," Chhorn says. "The walls were broken and when it was raining, we could not study as the rain would get in and sometimes it would flood."

In addition to the new three-roomed school building, there are two houses for the school's three teachers, a latrine block and a solar panel which provides power for lighting.

In a village with no electricity, the lights are a big plus - enabling the school to run literacy classes in the evenings for women and men from the village, 60% of whom can't read or write.

Currently, 17 women and four men attend the classes, which are held for two hours every evening during the dry season.

One student, Mrs Kheam Savonn, says that while she enjoys learning how to read and write and receives encouragement from her husband, her main motivation is her two young children aged two and four.

"I want my children to go to school when they are old enough," she says. "I want to know how to read and write, so that when they come home from school with homework and ask me a question, I am able to help them."

The new school has been so successful, it's bulging at the seams, with seven classes (there are two Grade 1 groups) crammed into three rooms. But the villagers are already thinking about the future and possible solutions.

"This new school building is very satisfying," Village Chief Neang Yum says. "But sometimes we have to have four classes in one room. Now we want to propose another building."

To find out more about our work in Cambodia visit www.oxfam.org.au/world/asia/cambodia