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Empowering students through information and communication technologies

Women are still underrepresented in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Women are less likely to study or pursue a career in ICT creating a larger gap for rural women and girls in Cambodia. Schools in rural areas are facing difficulties recruiting and retaining female ICT teachers in remote areas.

ICT enables women and girls to gain access to new opportunities, knowledge and voices in their community and at the national level. The project strengthens gender equality and women’s empowerment in ICT creating opportunity, and help more female ICT teachers and girls who are interested in involved in this field.

Ms. Thim Soknoeurn is an ICT teacher at Chhnaeng Lower Secondary School. She was born to a farmer’s family and was raised in Takeo province. After she graduated from school, she worked in a garment factory in Phnom Penh for a year, then went and finished her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in 2018. Soknoeurn later applied for an ICT teacher position with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS). She passed the exam and studied at the Phnom Penh Pedagogy School for two years. After graduating from her studies, she started teaching ICT and Mathematics at Chhnaeng Lower Secondary School.

When asked what motivates her to teach students far away from her homeland is that she wants to help students and the community in the remote areas on ICT skills.

“I really like to teach ICT skills because I think that women and girls can do better in ICT just as well as men and boys. In the future, I want to support the teachers and students, in particular, girls to promote continueous ICT learning and to find a job,” — Soknoeurn Thim.

Funded by the Lyreco Education, CARE Cambodia installed computer laboratories and ICT systems for three lower secondary schools in Mondul Kiri province. This support has been very helpful for the schools and students to continue their education particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.Through CARE Cambodia’s project, “I and other teachers have been trained and improved in capacity of ICT skills. I also shared the knowledge and skills that I have gained from the training to students in schools to ensure the effective of teaching and learning. As a result, most students are very happy and enjoy their learning because they have good understanding of the ICT course and eventually improved their performance.” —said Ms. Soknoeurn.

Ms. Soknoeurn is very active to train and support the teachers, peer students and student councils to learn ICT subject and 21st Century Skill. Consequently, they apply this knowledge to support other students and their peers. They also have the capacity to attend virally learning, searching the documents on the MoEYS website, attend the online exam and meeting of the children and youth councils of Cambodia at the national level through different online platform.

“I am very happy that I became an ICT teacher and be a good role model to other women teachers, girl students and community to strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment. This ICT subject is very important and useful for teachers and students in the 21st Century’’. — Ms Soknoeurn added.