O Ta Saeng revisited

When we embarked on the school project at O Ta Saeng we were suffering from a bit of donor fatigue. It was our third school building project after Chhom Trach and Ta Peuv. Fortunately we were able to team up with The Alor Star Methodist Church who not only helped with our school building fund but also went on to build a church at O Ta Saeng. This ended up as a perfect example of not only how school and church building efforts can work together, but two churches that hardly know each other can trust each other enough to work hand in hand to advance His Kingdom.

We have followed up at O Ta Saeng through the donation of a swing and see-saw playground set. Unfortunately the construction was not up to standard and we have left instructions for the contractor to redo the installation. But it is a good start and the kids are clearly delighted with the playground.
We are also putting in place a plan to incentivize the students through the provision of annual prizes for the top 5 students in each class. Unfortunately we didn't go quite prepared this trip so we had to make do by awarding a stuffed toy to the best student in each class. We will prepare a series of gifts/awards for next year, but the presentation this year was nonetheless a good opportunity to make a point to the students that they should strive to do well.

But the school still suffers from a lack of teachers. The government could only provide one teacher. One was drawn from the community and another from the local high school. Currently despite having a maximum capacity of 6 sessions, the school only holds 4 classes - Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4.