Father General Adolfo Nicolás SJ has given his permission for the establishment of an education project in Cambodia. The school, as proposed in the report Discerning a Major Focus for our Education Project in Cambodia, comprises a medium sized secondary school with four classes in each grade and a small primary school with two classes in each grade. It will include a teacher training resource centre (which will also function as a community learning centre) and a hostel for trainee teachers.
“This education project is very dear to the hearts of Jesuits and partners living and working with Khmer young people,” said Fr Ashley Evans SJ, an Irish missionary who arrived in Cambodia in 1993 after two years in the Khmer refugee camps (1986-88) and who heads the Education Mission Leadership Team. “It has taken us many years of discussion, prayer, discernment, evaluation and reflection to reach this point, and we are very happy that we finally have approval to proceed.“
The project will be located in either Battambang or Banteay Meanchey province. Fr Ashley said that the decision-making process has not been completed.
Local partners are the Battambang Prefecture, the Catholic Church Students’ Centre Alumni Association together with the provincial educational authorities. Dialogue is continuing to identify international partners, which could include other provinces of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, the Hong Kong Lay Missionary Association and the Ursuline Sisters.
Funding will be needed for the land, the buildings, the scholarship capital fund and supplementary running costs for the first 12 years of the project after which it is envisaged that the schools will be self-sustainable.
On June 14, Fr Francisco Oh In-don SJ, Delegate of the Korean Provincial to the Cambodia Mission, announced that he has appointed Fr Ashley director of the new education project. Fr In-don will make a decision in July on when and how the project will begin.
Through Jesuit Service-Cambodia (JSC), the Society has been involved in education for more than two decades. It has been supporting primary school students and teachers in remote areas for many years by funding the construction of schools and providing scholarships to poor students in the form of uniforms, books, bicycles and mobile libraries. JSC has also supported teacher training at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in the Departments of Mathematics, Biology and Philosophy. Jesuit Service also publishes short story books in Khmer for children to encourage reading and comprehension skills. In cooperation with the Providence Sisters, Jesuit Service supports a centre for disabled children in Phnom Penh and a centre for disadvantaged children in Battambang.
See related articles: JCAP Education on the move and Rising to the challenge.