
Students in class at the New Generation School on Sisowath High School’s campus in Phnom Penh.
A central feature of Cambodia’s current education plan is the implementation of New Generation Schools, which aim to provide the Kingdom’s abler students with a thoroughly modern schooling. Post Education reports on the impact one NGS has made in the nation’s capital. Throughout the eastern wing of Sisowath High School are corridors of new computer labs, science labs, modern wood-paneled classrooms, a multimedia library, and newly renovated administration offices carved above the old meeting rooms like suspended glass cubicles. On October 2, the New Generation School’s first day back in session after Pchum Ben, teachers can be seen calling attendance behind their personal laptops, desks framed with their students’ achievements. Colored algorithms, sculptures of DNA sequences, blue veined tests adorned with bright red As. Other teachers walk among their students desks as they lecture. They gesture broadly across rows of computers, they circle clusters of students huddled over the sinks in their chemistry labs. The activity is a stark contrast to western wing of the school, where the students have not yet returned from holiday. The infrastructure in Sisowath’s other sector remains unchanged, and widespread practices, such as in-school private tutoring and bribery, recognized as corrosive to any learning environment, remain generally unchallenged. Sisowath high school became a host for the New Generation School program, facilitated as a “school within a school”, in 2015. The program funded the renovations of Sisowath’s eastern wing, which is now a campus housing the infrastructure needed for the New Generation School’s information and communications technology (ICT) and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) intensive curriculum.
What do students and teachers think about NGSs?
October 2 marked the first day of school for New Generation School students after the Pchum Ben holiday. Several students and teachers offered their opinions on the impact the New Generation School has made on their learning and their experiences with the program so far. Grade nine student Pov Sovannarith is currently in his second year at NGS. He compared his experiences at a public middle school to NGS’s secondary school. “NGS is a good school, and the teachers here are a lot better than in public schools.” When asked how he felt about returning to school earlier than students enrolled in Sisowath High School, which is on the same site, he said, “I feel happy to be back at school, and cleverer for it.” Keo Chanith is a physics teacher at NGS. She said the information technology at NGS allows for the use of more multimedia resources. “At NGS you have different administration policies than those at a public school. There are many ICT systems to teach students, and the administration can draw research and knowledge from resources on the internet, like YouTube. The administration here focuses on teaching students critical thinking. We want them to expand on their ideas and create new things. I like NGS’s policy, and I think New Generation School students will benefit from the accountability and knowledge within the administration.” Voleäk, 14, is in the ninth grade, her second year at NGS. Her favorite subject is chemistry and she aspires to become a fashion designer. When asked how NGS differs from other schools she said, “The rules. Teachers have a lot of experience and the testing is different. I just want to say, NGS is better than other schools.” Mathematics teacher Puthy commented on the cross-curricular nature of education at NGS, which reflects current best practice in the sector. “Before, I never considered English and ICT [in mathematics], but here, we need to know how to include both.”
NGSs alter teachers’ approach to their profession, with paid tutoring frowned on during school hours. Photo Jade Sacker

STEM subjects are a high priority at Phnom Penh’s New Generation School. Photo Jade Sacker
What are New Generation Schools?
New Generation Schools are part of a government education reform program, a new development track within the current education system that enables the creation of autonomous public schools. The concept is similar to the charter schools pioneered in the United States in the 1990s and subsequently in the U.K. These schools have greater leeway in spending their funding allocation. The idea for the education reform was initially conceived by the Cambodian Action for Primary Education (KAPE), the biggest in-country NGO focused on Cambodia’s education sector, and was later fully adopted and funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. Their pilot program, the Beacon School Initiative, was implemented in 2014 in Kampong Cham province, and as the program expanded, they became the New Generation Schools. The goal of NGSs is to create public schools that maintain maximal education learning standards through higher investment. NGS focuses on enforcing transparency and accountability by changing the way schools are managed. This is a departure from the government’s traditional method of distributing all funds equally. If there is no accountability in the way schools are managed, new facilities such as science labs will be underutilized as many teachers practice private tutoring instead, systemically favoring students who supplement their state salaries. New Generation Schools confront this issue by abolishing the practice all together. Teachers are carefully selected and receive incentives such as scholarships to encourage teacher integrity. They are finding that in these new environments, where teachers no longer compete for student customers, there is a greater sense of positive reinforcement. Kurt Bredenberg, a senior advisor at KAPE, stated in an informal interview, “This is a very incremental approach that is working, that has made an impact. We really see the change in people’s attitudes. “People really want to be in the school, and we find that another important lesson learned is that when you bring like-minded people together, they reinforce each other. Someone who is dysfunctional, there are a lot of sanctions against that person, that you shouldn’t be doing that. I think the important thing about NGS is that positive people reinforce each other, and you have a dynamic that just gets stronger and stronger and it really makes the school a wonderful place to work.” New Generation Schools are also built on the involvement of the students’ parents. “If parents do not feel the school belongs to them, they don’t care as much. The parents have responsibility now and can advocate for their children’s best interests. All people have to be aware and work together,” said Phan Bunnath, Sisowath NGS’s operations manager. To explain this dynamic, Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, the Minister of Education, Youth, and Sport stated, “The New Generation Schools provide a mixed management model that allows the community to participate in the management of the public school. And the school can have a flexible implementation of the curriculum.” He continued, “I think, with this in mind, that’s why we decided to entrust KAPE with the New Generation School Program, because they teach 21st century skills, knowledge and literacy, but also ICT skills, foreign language skills. They should also have life skills, soft skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. They should also have a good attitude, like good organizational skills, to help them become good national citizens, but also good global citizens. [Students need] to know about global warming and terrorism, and how to address these issues.”Contact PhnomPenh Post for full article
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