Mr. Kantha, 58, is the School Principal at the local primary school in Anlong Reab commune, located in the western Cambodian province of Pursat. Anlong Reab Commune is located in Veal Veng District - a remote district of the province near the Thai-Cambodia border.

Following decades of conflict and civil war, the forested and mountainous region of Veal Veaeng District was once a holdout for armed groups, including elements of the Khmer Rogue, well into the late 1990’s. Development of infrastructure and basic services in the area has been slow, and teachers, schools, hospitals, roads, and people’s livelihoods in general are still basic compared to other parts of the country.

This was certainly the case in Mr. Kantha’s village. He explained that after the end of conflict in the late 1990’s, the commmunity decided to build a new school. “We had new land for a school from the government, and we wanted to live there and have a school near the big road. So in 2000 after the war generation we moved [the school] from the old land in the forest near the mountain. [The old school] was a wooden building with three rooms.”

Mr. Kan Tha was previously a volunteer teacher at the old wooden school, where he built good relationships and trust with NGO workers and government education officials who were supporting the wooden school at that time. When the new land was allocated for the Anlong Reab Primary School, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport gave him a new job as School Principal starting in 2000.

The land remained empty until 2003 when Mr. Kantha’s request for government funding was successful, and they built a concrete school building with five rooms. This was the situation for the next 13 years. “During that time I felt [it was] very difficult for myself and the community as we had come out of the war, but I was determined to improve my school and the community,” said Mr. Kantha.

Challenges remained. “There were only around four teachers in the community, and around 120 students from the surrounding villages ranging from first grade to sixth grade,” Mr. Kantha said. The number of students attending school increased year after year, and in 2016, the school began using one of the classrooms for preschool classes in the morning.

Mr. Kantha said that his school had no school development committee; they lacked enough teachers, buildings, school materials and other infrastructure. He was happy to see his school grow and begin teaching preschool classes, but was worried about how to accommodate more students.

In 2018, Save the Children began implementing the Remote Early Learning (R.E. Learning) project in Anlong Reab commune. The project aims to improve the quality of children’s learning at existing preschools and to improve preschool governance. The project has worked with the school at Anlong Reab to improve the school environment and facilities, and has helped train the teachers, principal, parents and other community members on topics such as school management, planning, and teaching.

With support from the project, in 2018 there were 40 preschool students (24 girls) from 4 to 5 years of age, attending preschool. With this support and training, and recognizing a growing demand for preschool education, Mr. Kantha worked to mobilize resources from local stakeholders to support the construction of a preschool building in accordance with the new school development plan.

In 2019, the number of preschool children at the school nearly doubled with around 78 children (39 girls). Mr. Kantha explained that due to this increase and the shortage of preschool classrooms, he decided to mobilize the community once again to build two more preschool classrooms.

Mr. Kantha is thrilled to see such rapid change at his school and within his community with support from the R.E Learning project and education authorities from the District and Provincial Offices of Education. “I hope that this school and community will improve into the future with the great contribution from the communities [taking part] in their community development,” he said.

Kantha (right) leads a school committee meeting