Sunitai is a remarkable 12 year old girl that I am teaching in the evenings. However, she attends three different schools everyday. Her first, in the morning, is the public state school, which we would expect to be free. But, as I have mentioned in past posts, state schooling comes at a cost through corruption at the teacher level; no student will progress without paying teachers off! Teachers are so poorly paid that they feel obliged to charge fees to pass students and, consequently, are undermining the integrity of the profession here and diminishing the effect that education has on the lives of young Cambodians. The second school is a free English language school she attends in the afternoon. Then, in the evening from 6pm to 7pm Sunitai comes to VDCA to better her English and study any other classes (art, computer instruction) she can access.
Luckily for Sunitai, she is directly sponsored by a Canadian woman that she endearingly calls 'aunty'. Sunitai informs me that she has been studying English since she was three years old at her father's request. Her father, a local Tuk Tuk driver in Siem Reap, would be lucky to earn US$100 a month and would probably not be able to support Sunitai's education without her Canadian aunty's gracious sponsorship. That said however, in conjunction with her sponsorship funding, it is through 12 year old Sunitai's perseverance, application and mature approach to her studies that she is creating a future for herself here amidst an environment that presents challenges to her learning daily. I find myself wondering though, would Sunitai too be apathetic to education as many Australian students are - students that on the whole never really go without or understand disadvantage - if she was not surrounded by adversity and enjoying an opportunity that few Cambodian children not born into wealth enjoy?
Until next time...
R
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