Empower Cambodian children with English language

July 1, 2024

Greetings, Friends & Supporters of ODC,

As one of ODC’s international board members, I am writing this report while Founder and Headmaster Chhaiya Im continues his participation in the year-long Atlantic Fellows Equity Initiative Program. During this quarter, Chhaiya traveled to Vietnam, New Zealand, and the United States. The impact of Chhaiya’s education and field experiences in this program are evident as we witness him developing into an even stronger leader and change maker. We look forward to Chhaiya applying his newly developed knowledge and skills to improve education equality here at ODC.

 As many people around the world also experienced, the weather this quarter was exceptionally hot in Siem Reap. Our teachers and students braved record-hot days teaching and studying English at our school—without the aid of air conditioning. They demonstrated true commitment day after day. Across 12 classes, we have 213 students studying English with our 5 teachers, 2 teaching scholars, and 2 volunteers. We have 35 students on our waitlist, each hoping for a spot to open up in the class level they need. We continue our dedication to maintaining smaller class sizes, as evidenced by our current classes ranging from 10 to 22 students, depending on the level. All students sat for their mid-year exams, and our teachers shared their findings and observations to their parents during parent-teacher conferences. We took our highest-achieving students from each class on a day-long field trip to famous Angkor Wat, and then to Angkor National Museum. We ended the night energized by the riotous Phare Circus.

To begin the third quarter of this school year, ODC is initiating Professional Development Week, a week of professional workshops for our teachers. The intention is to provide our teachers with five uninterrupted days centered around improving teaching and learning in our classrooms. The immediate focus is on developing new lessons to infuse Khmer culture into the weekly lessons taught using our western textbook series. Stay tuned for a summary in our next quarterly report! Last, our newest ODC team member, Dara Moeun, has collected mid-year outcome data on student learning that we will soon begin to analyze.

ODC is also continuing to make progress on our plans to improve and expand our facilities. By the end of the year, we will reduce heat in all our school rooms by implementing a variety of heat mitigation projects. We are also excited to report that we recently have been exploring opportunities to increase our outreach of “the ODC way” with other schools. We are facing many of our challenges head on and with creativity and positivity. It remains a very busy year for all of us at ODC. Please know that your support is the fuel that keeps us moving forward. We are doing this together. Thank you!