Project: Mentoring Program for teachers in Cambodia

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After a 5-hour drive from the capital Phnom Penh, we arrived at
a peaceful and typical Cambodian village in Tbong Khmom Province called Steng.  Driving pass a narrow road with rows of wooden houses, after a football field, sits a fenced and gated complex of an international school run by an overseas foundation. Engaged as a consultant in the Schools Transformation program, I was there to conduct a 3-day Mentor Teachers training for leaders and senior teachers of the school. It is part of a year-long capacity building programme for leaders and teachers of more than 10 schools in the province that were sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

Morning Assembly at Rahma International School.

CAMBODIA


        


Similar to the workshops held in Indonesia and Thailand, it was the last module of 5 that I personally designed for the Organisational Development (OD) Program for Schools, which included:
  1. Strategic Management 1- Visioning, Stakeholders Analysis & Organisational Climate Survey
  2. Strategic Management 2- Establishing Organisational Identity and Action Planning
  3. Strategic Management 3- Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Action Plans
  4. Leadership Theory and Practice
  5. Mentor Teachers Training
Each module requires 3 days to conduct. I also managed 4 other programs concurrently, i.e. Pedagogy, English language mastery, Teaching of Arabic and ICT. The challenge in the delivery is not only to customise the material according to the school's context but to translate the technical terms to the Khmer language. To overcome the language barrier during the presentations, we engaged an interpreter who came with us from Phnom Penh as well as included subtitles for videos where possible.  


Headmaster Said Ahmed gave the opening speech before the session.

Active listening was key. I needed to be observant and look at the participants' body language as some may try to look as if they understood what was said even when they didn't.

The view from the wire-gauzed guest room window (to keep the insects and crickets out) where I stayed. I even had an encounter with the power-jawed tokay gecko.


Location: Cambodia

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