The Cambodia Rural School Project
The Aeon Bougainvillea School
(July, 2001)
Mr. Hong Tonk Tan Kem Heng is the chief of the school community of the Aeon Bougainvillea School. He is 51 years old and has been living in the village since 1980. He is married with three children, all of who graduated from the school and are now in secondary school. The school community is similar to a parent-teacher association in the US, and is a group which assists the school in raising funds for repairs, buying equipment, etc.
In Their Own Words. . .
| On the new building: | “The new building is important for the village community because all of the children in the village will get an education. The new building is very different from the old because all of the children in the village were afraid to go to school in the old building because they worried that it would collapse. The walls were being eaten by termites and would fall down from time to time. Now we don’t have to worry about the roof falling or walls collapsing, so our children are happy to go to school.”
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| On keeping students interested in school: | “We go around to the families in the village and ask them to send their children to school, or to ask them to check that their children are attending. We also ask the parents to make sure that their children study. Even if the school has good teachers, the students must attend and study to improve.”
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| On his personal history: | “Before the Pol Pot time, I was a soldier in the army under Lon Nol. During the Khmer Rouge, I was a farmer. During that time, it was very difficult to live. There was no freedom, and nothing political was tolerated. There were no wats and the people had no rights. When that time ended, I moved to Phnom Penh and then here.” |
