It's also crazy cause even when the students aren't supposed to cheat, they are incredibly bad at hiding it. If any of my students took a test in America, their test would be taken away by the teacher in about 30 seconds. They basically talk to the student next to them, blatantly look at a cheat sheet or blatantly copy the student next to them. Despite cheating, the students still get lots of answers wrong.
There is also a complete lack of study skills. Students don't really study that hard or know how to study. Many students will actually come into a test knowing nothing and just copy someone else.
The teachers are partly responsible for this. Students aren't told about a test until a day before and sometimes are not informed in advance at all. Teachers will put material on the test that hasn't been covered or even material they themselves don't know. Following the grade 10 English midterm, I had to help the teachers get the correct answer for the test that they made.
I try to do what I can to help, but the truth is, I'm not in a position to make any real difference with test taking here. When people I work with want to take on cheating and teach the students study skills, I help and advise them, but I can't do anything about it by myself.
The reality of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is that you see problems all around you, but you cannot make a sustainable difference unless native people want to solve the problems. So, I basically figure out what Cambodians want to work on and help them do it. I always mention ideas I have and try to educate people, but large scale campaigns on many issues like cheating just don't have the support. Maybe in the future I'll do a study skills workshop if my Cambodian friends want to do it with me.
A project that has gained support are the seminars Samon (a fellow teacher) and I are doing. We just hosted a leadership seminar and the school director came and spoke about leadership and the challenges he overcame. He talked about his values and how he worked hard and survived the Khmer Rouge to get where he is today. When he went to high school, he had to walk 15km (9 miles) each way, over two mountains and through the forest. Here are some pictures of the workshop:
Samon and I.
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| From leadership and walk |
The school director.
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| From leadership and walk |
I also have done some educating about hygiene lately. I spoke with the savings group I'm working with about hand-washing and Samon spoke with them about the importance of using a toilet. Apparently, many people have latrines, but prefer not to use them.
Onto something a little more enticing: food. Here is a picture of my breakfast the other day, the Khmer version of soup and a sandwich.
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| From leadership and walk |
The bowl is full of Khmer porridge, which is basically rice, veggies and fish. On the right is a sandwich. In the sandwich are vegetables and meat (with the consistency of tofu), something with the texture of sauerkraut and soy sauce and hot sauce. Don't let my description fool you; it's actually delicious (though it's also possible my sandwich standards have lowered here). And yes, it is wrapped in a rubber band and a piece of copy paper. Sometimes the paper has writing on it, but not today.
This next shot is a picture of my friends at the stand where I got the food. They are very friendly people, like most Khmer people.
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| From leadership and walk |
Here are some pictures of a few of my students. My students are also friendly and cheerful and many of them want to learn English, despite their massive amounts of cheating.
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| From leadership and walk |
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| From leadership and walk |
And this is someone I met when I was walking around. He's fishing in a small canal.
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| From leadership and walk |
Next week, I have a week of Peace Corps training in Phnom Penh. Although things are going well here, it will be nice to have a break.
