A Student's Report: 2016 Kiin Festival Presentation on Cambodia Study Tour

2017年3月16日更新

Education group presentation

Students who participated in the Cambodia study tour in August this year gave presentations at the 67th Kiin Festival held November 12-13, 2016. It was a great opportunity to share with everyone what we learned through that experience, as well as to gain an insight from the audience.

My particular group’s focus was on Cambodian education and vocational support. We visited the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office to hear about the educational support initiatives which JICA is conducting in conjunction with the Cambodian government, and also observed Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) at work in a Cambodian hospital, giving us exposure to educational and vocational support from the perspective of a range of actors. In addition, while huge numbers of talented educators were lost under the Pol Pot regime, we also saw the ongoing impact of those years on public attitudes to education and the low status and quality of Cambodian educators even today, impressing on us the problems which Cambodia faces in this area.

During the tour, we had the chance to interact with local university students. The ratio of Cambodians who go on to university is still down at two percent, with only children from wealthy households having access to higher education. However, there was a lot that we could learn from the many young people who are nevertheless absolutely determined to get an education. The National Employment Agency also has programs for high school students. A lot of foreign companies have operations in Cambodia, and in parallel with the education system, Cambodia appears to be putting in place the vocational support to train up young people with the potential to provide a skilled labor force for these companies.

Thanks to the great tour itinerary, I was able to delve far deeper into Cambodia than my prior surface impressions. Having the opportunity to participate in the tour in my first year at university was also extremely useful in terms of shaping my thinking about what areas I want to study and what career path I might like to pursue.

Poverty and gender group presentation
Health and medical care group presentation

(Chiemi Shima, 1st year student,
Department of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Letters and Education)