Yes, she's too old to enroll in kindergarten. They usually start there at the age of 3 or 4. If you decide she will enroll at a public school she will only study half days, either morning (typical: 7-11) or afternoons (1-5). I would try to find another program (English?) for the other half of they, either in a private school or at home. The public school will focus on Khmer, no ABC or foreign languages in the curriculum during the early grades.the chicken wrote:Kachang, she is about to turn 6 so I assume she would start from the first primary level. I am a bilingual and she is somewhat less as we use 80% of Khmer at home. Your description of the Khmer public school shared similar thought to mine as well. Guess I am gonna have to cut down on the cans in my free time and prioritize myself soon.
LOL, LL our TV had been to a repairman several times, and our rattan furniture are use to fend off thieves . Having watched the Stephen Hawkings documentaries thoroughly on Discovery airing for 3 straight consecutive days recently and his clashes/disagreement with religion, in this case the Vatican I dont think I want my kids to be indoctrinated either.
Enrolling your kid in a Khmer public school
Having some experience with this, let me chime in with some info:the chicken wrote:Any parents here have their kids studying in Khmer public school?
Just like to hear your experience in general such as the Khmer language and other subjects excluding English. Did you see any progress after a period of studying?
What about hygiene? Should I be concern?
- Public Khmer schools do have a morning and afternoon session, especially outside PP.
The morning session is "free" and the tuition is given without much regard for the children, whether the children do listen, understand, etc. Classes are over-crowded. This is the government obligatory schooling for kids until 16 years.
The afternoon session is not-free and parents are expected to pay for the tuition to the (same) teacher. The content is practically the same as the morning session, though now with a focus on actually learning and understanding. Classes are less crowded, due to many parents not able to pay, etc. Still not so very good. Afternoon classes are in the same buildings.
Hardly any attention for English tuition and if so, from a native Khmer, not so good themselves in English.
Expect bad hygiene, dirty environment, no or hardly any educational appliances, etc.
- The private schools, of which there are quite a lot in Phnom Penh. Some expensive, some affordable. Usually with a strong focus on additional English tuition. The morning session for 3 hours, 6 days a week, Khmer tuition (Khmer language, math, history, geo, biology, physics, some basic English, etc). The afternoon session, 3 hours, 5 days a week, focusses primarily on English with general education like presentation, reasoning, speaking, students competition, etc. Afternoon/morning sessions can be swapped depending on sign-up. Even younger (4+) kids will have serious options for learning English. The combination of Khmer and English seems to give a relatively good education, though still far away from Western, especially EU, schooling.
- For private schools, I do have experience with Beltei (some 20 locations in PP). Costs are around USD 750 for 1 year Khmer (+ some books, additional uniforms and school trips) and around USD 260 for 6 months of English (+ some books, no uniform, and school trips). The good thing I do experience with Beltei is the approachability of the director and the good intention to solve issues. Might be due to my white skin, though M12 has the same experience. Attention for the kids does look quite good, school is aircondition'd, clean, good hygiene, has a library, computers, pick-up/drop-off services, teacher-parent meetings, etc. My kids do have less accent in their English then I have myself.
- Beltei educates towards a regular Cambodian high-school certificate that should give access to Cambodian Universities, though I am in a process to find out, IF indeed and what to do to improve the opportunities. Don't expect a Cambodian high-school certificate to give access to any/serious Western universities. I am trying to find out what to do, etc, because the older kid wants to go study at a Paris university (speaks no French though ....).
- I also do have some experience with West World International school in TK, though that's limited to paying the school fees, seeing a very happy kid going there in kindergarten and teachers being communicative, when asked questions. School fees for a 3 hours morning session, 5 days a week: USD 600 a year, including books & 1 uniform.
- Very bad aspect regarding the whole Cambodian high-school system though, is the one-size-fits-all approach, giving the same education and high-school certificate for all and every kid, independent of the kids capabilities. Resulting in a lot of school drop-outs wo certificate and a lot of kids being under challenged, getting a certificate far below their capabilities, let alone educating them in a follow-mode in stead of developing the kids' own creative initiative.
Most Western/EU countries did a far better job designing their schooling system.
- If the money is no problem, consider a real International school, completely English & Western oriented, giving a better approach to creating the much more needed own initiative capabilities of the kids. Find a home near to such a school, otherwise you spent a huge amount of time on school-runs.
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