World Education - Feature Stories - Cambodia: Ministry Employee Plays Central Role in Shaping New Training Package

Over the last few years, World Education has worked in Cambodia with UNICEF and the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Department of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (MoEYS) on a project to build the capacity of ministry staff and parent educators to promote children's school readiness through discovery learning play. Ms. Ouk Sophannary, an officer at the ECE Department for the last six years has been involved in the project since April 2008.

At first, Sophannary was hesitant to get involved. "I initially felt it was a waste of my time and that working at my department was much better. Surprisingly, I was selected to work with World Education, and I was invited to attend an orientation to discuss how the ministry and World Education can work together to help promote discovery learning play. I started to enjoy the work and learned fast. I immediately get to practice what I have learned, and I have become a good example in my department."

As one of the project's Technical Advisory Group members, Sophannary took a key role in working with World Education and five other government staff to develop a new Discovery Learning Training Package that will be used under the government's national parenting education program. A new fan of discovery learning play, Sophannary invested two months of her time on the project, working with the rest of the team to create, test, and revise the training package. Her investment has proven worthwhile: Sophannary explains that she has learned not just about discovery learning play and how to develop model training sessions about discovery play activities, but also about working as a partner in a team, and how to be a good trainer for the district-level government staff and village-based parent educators. Moreover, she has completed a training package that her team crafted line-by-line and for which she feels full ownership.

Sophannary also believes the Ministry benefited from the project. "The director of the department has already taken some contents from the Discovery Learning Play Training Package for parents and used it in the public pre-school curriculum to improve the quality of education for young children. It's been worthwhile that World Education has brought this new concept [of discovery learning play] to Cambodian Early Childhood Education at a time when the Department is looking for technical support in this area. In fact, the Ministry had already identified the concepts of discovery learning play in their own pre-school curriculum, but since there have been no resources—human or material—we had just an idea on paper. Now, the Ministry feels confident that when the Discovery Learning Play Training Package is finalized, they will be able to find good modeling techniques which they can integrate, design creative lesson plans, and manage the training they have learned through the project."

Since 2007, World Education has worked in Cambodia with UNICEF Cambodia and the Early Childhood Education Department (ECED) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) on an initiative that seeks to develop young children's educational television and related parenting materials that complement ongoing work across the country to promote school readiness. The project focuses on building the capacity of parent educators to help parents promote their children's school readiness through discovery learning play. The new Discovery Learning Play Training Package for Parent Educators will be used by district and provincial level government trainers who are responsible for training community parent educators. Also under this partnership, the locally-adapted TV show, Peep and the Big Wide World, was developed and was specifically aligned to the national Early Learning Development Standards for Children Aged 5-6. A parenting 'spot' and locally made films were integrated into each Peep episode, showing parents how to make play a learning experience for their children and how to help their preschool-aged children develop skills that will make them ready to learn when they start school.

World Education, Inc.

Cambodia: Newly Converted to the Benefits of Discovery Learning Play, Ministry Employee Plays Central Role in Shaping New Training Package