在柬埔寨，教育是奢侈

在柬埔寨，教育是奢侈 撰文: 林艾依 ; 翻譯: Peter Chou

受Melody的感召，溫暖白色巨塔的小螺絲釘團隊在0815參加柬埔寨NGO的視訊會議。會議主題主要是討論第三期的英文線上課程，主持人是外語教學系的Janny老師，同時他也是前兩期的國際志工召集人。

相關細節討論完畢後，也與Green Umbrella 創辦人MR Sokrath討論了未來可以合作的其它事項，當中提到了柬埔寨因為學校師資的缺乏，造成學生上課時數縮減，原本早上有4小時的課，現在只有上2小時，但是小學只有早上上課耶! 另外，小四才開始上的英文課，有些學校一周只上一小時，有些甚至還沒有，因此常常「Free Time」。

為了提升教育普及率及讓學習不中斷，Green Umbrella 訓練了9年級生，也就是國三學生當英文老師，協助比他們年齡小的學生，這個訊息震驚了與會老師們 (Melody， Janny， 周則銘，茉莉瓊安，林艾依)。回想看看，國三的你在做甚麼呢?應該都是在父母的呵護之下，專心地準備人生的第一次大考吧!然而被挑選出來的這7位國三生 正努力想要改變他們村莊的命運，套句已故南非總統的話，”教育是改變這世界的武器”。

Sokrath表示，這些9年級準英文老師們需要被裝備，他們必須知道”課堂管理”與”課程設計”，這立刻點燃了我們USR的服務精神 (因為這是我們的專業呀) ，老師們認真的在暑假進入討論，期盼團隊可以如何協助Teacher Program 。

懇請閱讀完這篇的老師們跟學生們，伸出你的大手一起來協助這群在柬國村莊長大的小手，一起走向世界共好。

In Cambodia, Education is a Luxury

On August 15, 2022, Professor Melody Liao invited members of WHC-USR to participate in a video conference with the Founder of Green Umbrella- Mr. Sokrath. The topic of the meeting was to discuss the English online course. The host was Professor Jenny Sun from the Department of Foreign Languages, who was also the International Student Volunteer for the past two years.

After discussing the relevant details, we talked with Mr. Sokrath about issues that we can cooperate with in the future, including the lack of teachers in public schools in Cambodia, resulting in a reduction in the number of hours students attend classes. In addition, some schools only offer English classes for one hour a week, and some schools don’t even offer English classes until the fourth grade.

In order to improve the education rate and to keep the learning going, the NGO is planning to train 9th graders (junior high students), as English teacher to help younger students learn English. Thinking back, what were you doing when you were in junior high? I think we were all under the care of our parents, concentrating on studying! However, the seven selected junior high students are working to change the fate of their village, and in the words of the late South African President, “Education is the weapon that will change the world”.

The NGO founder said that these 9th grade prospect teachers need training and that they had to know “classroom management” and “curriculum design”, which immediately ignited our service spirit at USR (because that is our profession) and offered to help with the training.

We implore teachers and students who have read this article to extend your big hands to help this group of small hands that are forced to grow up and go out into the world together for good.