Twenty-nine students started first grade at the beginning of the school year in Deylo on the 1st of November 2015. Ms. Saory Suon has been looking after these bright and energetic young first graders right from day one. According to Ms. Saory the majority of the first grader did not know the alphabet nor were they able to write one to ten in Khmer. This is the biggest challenge for Ms. Saory when she began her first day in Deylo. “Most of my students can speak Khmer but the majority of them cannot read or write,” says Ms. Saory. She added, “all of my students are at different level and their age ranges from 6 to 10 years old.”
The other challenging aspect facing Ms. Saory within the first month of this new school year has been the lack of support from the parents of her students. “Most of the parents think that by sending their children to school then the school will look after them and that they have no responsibility for the education of their children,” shared Ms. Saory. “If the parents can help out just a little in the education of their children – i.e., by checking their children’ school work daily then I will have less a burden in the classroom each day.” Despite facing these challenges within the first two months of the school year Ms. Saory is very happy today because “my students can begin to read and write basic words now. I am happy because they are smart students and they learn very quick. Although they come from very poor families with very little support from their parents but they are learning many new things”.
As we enter the new year, we are faced with many new challenges as well as new experiences however there is much hope for Ms. Saory with her 1st grader students. She believes that her students will continue to make more progress in 2016 and hopes that the “parents will pay a little more attention to the learning of their children.”
Finally, Ms. Saory says “I am grateful to Xavier Jesuit School for providing the opportunity to these poor children in the Deylo area and to Joy of Sharing for providing the facility to facilitate in the learning of these poor students.”
Without the support of Xavier Jesuit School and Joy of Sharing Ms. Saory would be alone in this very challenging aspect of providing a good and quality education to a group of very poor students who have very little or no support from their parents because of their background. Despite the difficulty and challenges which Ms. Saory faces each day the task of getting her 1st grader to be able read and write continues. This difficulty and challenges begin at 7:00am tomorrow morning as she enters her classroom once again.
Here are some photos of Ms. Saory with her students:
Ms. Saory with her 1st Grade Students
A 1st Grader practicing writing skill
Ms. Saory helps her student with writing.
Two 1st graders writing the consonants.
1st Graders practicing writing.
Ms. Saory’s students writing Khmer numbers.