a '3 -2 curriculum' @ Coconut School

Have you ever come across a '3 -2 curriculum'? Well, if you haven't, you can find it here at Coconut school. The '3' represents English-Computer-&Recycling subjects and the '2' represents politics and religion - which the school does not teach its students. The founder of the school, Mr. Van Day, believes the students will be able to discover and determine about politics and religion on their own once they have the basic concepts the school aims to provide.

Located in a family home compound on a dusty village road in Roneah village, Koh Dach commune on Koh Dach island, the school attracts some seven hundred village children in its everyday class. All teachers teach at the school on a voluntary basis; the plot of land is provided for by the host family; and it takes about 130 USD per month to run this school.
"Mainly, we use the money we raise to cover the basic cost such as cost of electricity (which is charged at 40c per kwh at present), drinking water for students and volunteer teachers, and food for the teachers."

The name of the school, "Coconut" derives from the use of coconut board (from coconut tree) to make the basic structure of the school, including the table and chair for the classroom. Over the course of three years, the decay of the coconut wood takes away the physical significance of the school name and replace with un-used table and chair donated by different charity groups. However, the current structure comprised of recycled materials and only a basic necessity will be not a recycled product.


There are two classes in this school: a. coconut school for the basic English; Recycle Class to teach students to reproduce using recycle material; a computer class. At the time of our visit, there is a construction going on as the founder of the school, Mr. Van Day is working with his peer to construct an extension class fully made of car tiles; the basic structure has been erected and soon the tiles will be spray-painted in different colour; An annex to this tile-made classroom is a working office on the ground and the upper of is a open space for the teachers, students and any visitors to meet and chat. The vision for the open space is to be fully covered by plant and vegetable growing as the roof of this space.
Basic structure of an extension of the school under construction.

The ambition is not stopped at Coconut school. A firm plan has been made to construct the school at Kirirom area and it begins to take shape slowly.

And yes, it is not a private school; it is not part of the public school system. It is an alternative school for the students in the villages to come and learn because a young, passionate, and charisma man from Battam Bang province who happened to travel to his part of the country, saw the situation and believe that he could offer something to the community in order to help the younger generation of Cambodian to have the knowledge and be able to break free from the increasing outgoing migration to job such as construction workers and workers in the entertainment and leisure industry. He talked the host family into giving his the space of the family compound and he talked his idea through to his like-minded friends and groups he could reach to realise his wish.

Our team brought the requested materials to Coconut school:
water filters, white board, notebooks, refill white board inks and other school materials.
I am proud to be able to learn from Van Day, learn about his passion, and be able to contribute in a personal capacity to the school. I hope more locally-tailored initiatives such as this one mushrooming and we could find the true meaning of our vision and dream realised in a local capacity. And yes, it is a '3-2' curriculum school.

With the Coconut School founder

Coconut school is looking for female volunteer teachers to teach body-hygiene to the female students who are entering into puberty. In his view, it would be much more at ease and appropriate to have the female teachers speaking to young girls about this subject. And I don't have to ask if he has been to one of the gender sensitive training that the NGOs in Cambodia provide! You can have your own conclusion!

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