Our second Director’s Learning Walk was a real Cambodian experience. It highlighted the complexity of the school Director’s role.

The high school we visited was a large high school in the Battambang. The newly appointed Director had completed our leadership program last year and had been promoted from Sub Director to the Director in the last six months.

The first thing we noticed when we sat down in the Director’s office was a printed statement, which referred to, the complex issue of corruption and the challenge of ethical leadership. The Director indicated that the previous Director had placed this statement in a prominent position in the office. One can only assume it was meant to motivate and encourage ethical leadership.

Shortly after our arrival at the school, one of the directors arrived, a little late and informed us that one of his students had been killed on his way to school in a motor accident. We were horrified as we are aware of the high incidence of motorbike deaths in this country. We offered condolences and suggested that he might want to return to school but he indicated, very resolutely, that the matter had been dealt with.

Our Learning Walk was a real eye opener. Class sizes were enormous. IN YEAR TEN THE AVERAGE CLASS SIZE RANGED FROM 72 TO 78. STUDENTS WERE SEATED THREE TO A DESK. The year twelve Chemistry class had fifty-five students and no equipment or capacity to support experimentation or testing. The one room library for 4,345 students looked more like a small office than a library. The computer room was double locked with padlocks and the computers were used for word processing but were not linked to the Internet. DESPITE ALL THESE LIMITATIONS STUDENTS APPEARED HAPPY, KEEN TO LEARN AND WERE VERY RESPECTFUL.

The participants in the Learning Walk provided a lot of positive feedback but it was the Director who articulated his next steps in improving the facilities in the school. He listed a range of required actions, for example, he stated that he had the Khmer musical instruments but there was no band, he had a sewing room but no teacher, he had some computers but not enough computer teachers and he was committed to improving the school grounds to make them clean and green.

WE HAVE NOTHING BUT ADMIRATION FOR THE SCHOOL DIRECTORS AS THEY WORK TO OVERCOME ENORMOUS OSTACLES. We believe that their involvement in the TAB Leadership workshop and the affirmation that they are receiving plus the range of new ideas, which are discussed, makes them feel a little more supported in order that they can continue this challenging task of building the Cambodian education system.