Up date.
So what is new?
We are moving forward.
1. We have the churches permission to use their building.
2. We have a teacher in training willing to work for less money for a while with the hopes of better pay in the future. Kind of an investment into her own future you might say.
3. We know there are families willing to pay for the education, so many there is thought to having more than one class.
4. We are buying books that the regular school use and looking at translating some of Sam's home school books. We really want the class to go so well that the difference between the children at our school and the children elsewhere is night and day. So start that it makes the parents willingness to pay for the next grade level easier.
Greater details on why we are looking at opening a private school.
Easy, we think that the public system is a waste of time and money. A place where are kids are distracted, threatened and money is extorted, where lies, cheating, bribery and fear runs rampant.
Probably 50% of our stress this year has come from our children being at school.
So for a little bit of effort and money we can change that stress of problems while they are at school to a more productive stress of managing a good school. I guess the trade of stress is more that we have some sort of control over it or that something good is coming from it.
Now I have a lot of my own opinions I can go through in here but I'll try to just stick with numbers.
In 2008,
The literacy rate in our Province was 60.5%; 70.6% of men, 51.7% of females.
11% of the children never attend school.
Only 48% of children in school transition into high school
29% of the children that attend school still end up illiterate.
The class rooms are over crowded. Most of our children have 50 to 61 children in their class. Only one of our children is in a class with less than 45 children. Cambodia has the highest child to teacher ratio in the world. Our village has over 3,000 kids in the k-12 and more children in the school down the street.
We've met many teenagers that do not know their alphabet let a lone how to read or write. Almost every child we have accepted does not know how to read or write when they get here. Some at 12 years old has never even been to school.
A lot of the teachers do not know the subject they are teaching. English teachers don't speak English. Biology teachers that do not know biology. Some teachers are known to have paid for their degrees or get a degree for a subject other than that of which they studied for.
In the public system the teachers encourages children to cheat on test, if the students pass the teacher does not get in trouble with the principle. The public system only gets money from foreign aid for every student that passes , so student can pass and graduate still failing every grade. One of our past staff had 13 F's and 1 E and graduated high school.
Students often pay bribe to the teachers for good grades.
Students often have to attend extra paid classes in order to get good grades in regular class.
Students often get bad grades if they do not help the teacher pick or plant rice.
Student are often beat up in classes while the teacher hides under the desk.
Our own children have been threatened at school for talking to a girl from church.
I am told some of the teachers are making $120 a month as a normal salary. Then they hold 2 or more extra classes. Each student pays about $4 a month for an extra class with a full class of 61. That is $244 for extra classes and the $120 is $360 to $604 a month for a teacher in a country where the average income is $18 USD a month.
Fairly many teachers only make about $60 a month and do not hold extra classes, mostly grades under 6.
Surprisingly these are some of the complaints my children have brought to us.
"I don't like it when the teacher smokes in class.
I don't like it when my teacher put the problem on the board and goes to play volleyball for the rest of the day.
I don't like it when my teacher is late to class or does not show up.
We don't like all the trash every where.
When the gangs come from the other school they chased the kids with Samurai swords.
I have to help pick my teachers rice field today or he will take 10% of my over all grade.
I need money to pay for after school classes or he will take 10% of my grade.
I do not like it when the teacher put the problem on the board but says I will show you how to do the problem after school in the extra class.
I am scared when the children fight in class. They fight because the teacher is not there or hides under the desk.
The teacher gets in trouble if he does not do extra classes because the principle gets part of the money
The Buddhist monk helps look over the class for tests and are told that we will not cheat because we are Christians"
Foreseeing that the system is and will not get better any time soon pushes us forward with our desires for a separate private system.
So our current plans and may change as we move forward but here they are so far.
First and foremost is to obtain the land as much as we can at one time. We need to do this in order to avoid price hikes. After we bought the orphanage property prices more than tripled, this would quickly kill our budget.
We have 8 plots of land blocked out estimated cost $58,000 USD.
There are an additional 6 plots "yellow on the map" we would like, that would raise the land cost to $95,000 USD for
19,000 sq. Meters.
Subject, Class rooms and Grade levels:
1 Math 6 1-6
2 Khmer 6 1-12
3 Science 6 1-6
4 Social studies 6 1-12
5 Geometry 6 7-12
6 History 6 1-12
7 Geography 6 7-12
8 Astronomy 6 7-12
9 Home economics 6 7-12
10 Biology 6 7-12
11 English 6 1-12
12 Sports 6 1-12
13 Work 6 1-12
14 Art 6 1-12
Extra Classes:
15 Japanese 1-12
16 Chinese 1-12
17 Vietnamese 1-12
18 Thai 1-12
19 French 1-12
20 Korean 1-12
21 Drama 1-12
22 Music 1-12
23 Dance 1-12
24 Computer 1-12
25 Animal husbandry 1-12
26 Agriculture 1-12
27 Welding 7-12
28 Electricity 7-12
29 Algebra A 7-12
30 Algebra B 7-12
31 Chemistry 7-12
32 Trigonometry 10-12
33 Pre-calculus 10-12
34 Calculus 10-12
35 Physics 7-12
36 Mechanics 7-12
37 Government 7-12
38 Religion 1-12
39 Accounting 7-12
40 Weaving 1-12
41 Sewing 1-12
42 Cooking 7-12
Amount Buildings: Approximate Cost
12 - 32 Class rooms $6,500 each =$208,000
10 - 20 Staff housing $10,000 each =$200,000
1 Teacher lounge $13,000
4 Administration $6,500 each =$26,000
2 Councilor $6,500 each =$13,000
1 Food court $20,000
1 Library $24,000
1 Clinic nurse $25,000
1 Track and field $3,000
2 Seating $10,000
1 Stage $20,000
1 Stables $3,000
4 Guard shacks $500 =$2,000
1 Guard tower $1,500
1 Maintenance shop $6,500
1 Power house $3,000
4 Guest houses $13,000 each =$47,000
1 Parent house $50,000
1 Bus barn $30,000
1 Parking $5,000
1 Pond $2000
1 Water tower/ storage $10,000
1 Sewage $50,000?
1 Garden $1,000
4 Student Restrooms $13,000 each
2 Staff Restrooms $6,500 each
1 Print room for books and supply $13,000
8-13 Land plots $58,000 to $95,000
92 buildings
Possible Totals: $842,000 to $879,000
Problems:
1. Sanitation
2. Water
Not to Bad I mean a million is a lot but not considering what is being accomplished.
Since we are in the village we will have to provide staff housing but we will charge them rent.
We will also have to provide a place for teams.
We will also be adding a house for the Director and a health care clinic.
With a place so large we are expecting to deal with sewage, water and electricity.
We believe that the school will probably even turn a profit.
We plan on charging grade school kids$5 USD a month and Junior high and up will be $10 a month.
It all really depends on God's blessing and your help.
We need friends, support and prayer.
Feel free to ask us questions or leave a comment.
