Greetings from Ratanakiri,
We have GOOD NEWS from IDEAS (Indigenous Development Education Accomodation Support):
A Jarai/Tampuan girl named Saran, age 21, has just become the first ethnic minority girl to pass the national grade 12 exam
Thus she has earned the coveted high school completion diploma (called 'bacceleureate diploma, after the French system).
Saran is also likely the first person from the Jarai ethnic group to graduate.
Saran joined the IDEAS dorm as soon as it opened last year. Her village is about 4 hours by motorbike from the provincial capital, in the most remote district of the province. Since her family has no motorbike, she could only rarely go visit her family.
She is now eligible for a government scholarship in Phnompenh (5% are earmarked for ethnic minorities) although it is unlikely that she will be able to make it through the hoops. I will meet with her tomorrow to see if I can help.
IDEAS is the new sub-project we started one year ago which housed 40 ethnic minority high school students for the 2008-2009 school year, and is preparing to house 50 this year (Oct 2009-June 2010).
IDEAS was started to fill the gap by providing housing so that ethnic minority students can access the one highschool in Ratanakiri Province, which is located in the provincial town. Anyone aspiring to continue their education must come to the provincial center.
There are 240 villages in the province, but many are without primary schools, so it is only the past ten years that any ethnic minority students have made their way through primary school and lower secondary and finally continue secondary school in the provincial centre. Only a handful of ethnic minority boys and no ethnic minority girls had ever managed to jump through the hoops to complete highschool, despite a population of about 75,000 indigenous peoples in the province, But this has just changed with Samouen being the first girl!!
We are so pleased to have the first ethnic minority girl in the history of the province reach this level. And IDEAS played a large role in her success.
She hopes to study to become a doctor.
We have GOOD NEWS from IDEAS (Indigenous Development Education Accomodation Support):
A Jarai/Tampuan girl named Saran, age 21, has just become the first ethnic minority girl to pass the national grade 12 exam
Thus she has earned the coveted high school completion diploma (called 'bacceleureate diploma, after the French system).
Saran is also likely the first person from the Jarai ethnic group to graduate.
Saran joined the IDEAS dorm as soon as it opened last year. Her village is about 4 hours by motorbike from the provincial capital, in the most remote district of the province. Since her family has no motorbike, she could only rarely go visit her family.
She is now eligible for a government scholarship in Phnompenh (5% are earmarked for ethnic minorities) although it is unlikely that she will be able to make it through the hoops. I will meet with her tomorrow to see if I can help.
IDEAS is the new sub-project we started one year ago which housed 40 ethnic minority high school students for the 2008-2009 school year, and is preparing to house 50 this year (Oct 2009-June 2010).
IDEAS was started to fill the gap by providing housing so that ethnic minority students can access the one highschool in Ratanakiri Province, which is located in the provincial town. Anyone aspiring to continue their education must come to the provincial center.
There are 240 villages in the province, but many are without primary schools, so it is only the past ten years that any ethnic minority students have made their way through primary school and lower secondary and finally continue secondary school in the provincial centre. Only a handful of ethnic minority boys and no ethnic minority girls had ever managed to jump through the hoops to complete highschool, despite a population of about 75,000 indigenous peoples in the province, But this has just changed with Samouen being the first girl!!
We are so pleased to have the first ethnic minority girl in the history of the province reach this level. And IDEAS played a large role in her success.
She hopes to study to become a doctor.
1 comment:
congrat.. great job...all the best.. cheers, sopheap from Ratanakiri
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