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Future Forum's research fellow, Khem Chanra, was published in Kiripost on September 5, 2024. Check out the original article HERE, and read it below!
Imagine a common scene: under the boiling sun, a few young students in a remote area walk to their primary school, which is far from their home. It takes them about 30 minutes through rice fields, forests and a few residential areas. Many young students commute like this on a daily basis.
What if students like these also had educational opportunities and educational spaces beyond their primary schools. Children could have access to spaces for learning at their local pagodas, to do homework, for additional lessons, independent study and more.
Pagodas have long been central to Khmer life. Pagodas are places for religious purposes, which bring communities together. It’s noteworthy, however, that beyond worship, pagodas have traditionally been a place of learning for local people, especially for those who cannot afford to study in school.
Pagodas have traditionally been places to keep and restore Khmer books and literature during periods of struggle, especially when Cambodia was under French colonial rule. Pagodas can serve as learning spaces and libraries, playing a more active educational role for all children beyond the religious role they currently have.
Cambodian educational system in the past
Historically, education in Cambodia took place exclusively in religious spaces, and lessons were taught by monks. Disāpāmokkha schools were the most important schools in the Funan Kingdom period and hermits or monks taught in them.
During the Khmer Empire, King Jayavarman VII established an education system inside Buddhist temples, and two universities were established in Preah Khan temple named Vat Cheysrey and another was built in Taprom Temple named Raja Vihear, whose administration was under the management of King Jayavarman VII’s wife, Queen Andra Devy.
After the Angkorian Empire period, the educational system in Cambodia was less formal and was mostly practised in Wat schools (pagodas) until the arrival of the French in 1863. During this time, monks still played a significant role in teaching.
Although Cambodia’s modern educational system has been formalised, wats are still central places for people to learn. One researcher from the Royal Academy of Cambodia found that throughout history, pagodas have been, and remain, vital places for the preservation of Cambodia’s intellectual and literary heritage, particularly during periods of intense upheaval.
Pagodas have produced some of the shining lights of Cambodia. Samdach Choun Nat, a Khmer literature scholar who was the first person to publish a Khmer dictionary and composed the Cambodian national anthem, Preah Phirum Krom Nguy, a famous Cambodian author, and other scholars mostly studied in pagodas.
Learning spaces and community libraries in remote areas
In many remote places, students have a limited number of physical places for enriching their educational lives. Many schools in remote areas are far away from residential areas. Some students must walk a long way to arrive at their school. By comparison, most villages have a centrally located wat.
Pagodas have long been learning spaces for boys who cannot afford schooling. Pagodas also consist of schooling called “Sala Puthikak”, which consists of two degrees; they are primary and high school. Students in these schools are monks and subjects are similar to the formal education that monks would receive at schools along with subjects that cover Buddhist knowledge.
Wats can also be places for non-formal education. Children living in poverty in remote areas may not have many opportunities to learn beyond primary school due to limited family finances and other factors. Some monks have already begun teaching non-formal classes, particularly to reach more disadvantaged students in subjects including mathematics, Khmer literature, computers and English.
Venerable Im Teang, for instance, who stays at Sirisakor Daun Steng Pagoda in Preah Sdach district, Prey Veng province, told the ‘Phnom Penh Post’ that he established classes because he saw many children from nearby villages were from poor families, experienced irregular school participation and struggled with low levels of literacy.
Venerable Im Teang holds small classes of about 14 students for about five hours every day, teaching Khmer, English and Dharma.
Another example is Wat Damnak pagoda. Wat Damnak in Siem Reap city has been a learning space for more than 100 years, particularly for children from families who cannot afford schooling.
The pagoda operates a primary school and a sewing academy for adult women, as well as English classes for boys and girls in the evening. This illustrates the potential that pagodas hold in terms of instilling knowledge.
Pagodas can also be a place for self-guided learning, reading through their potential as libraries. Many pagodas have big campuses with quiet and beautiful environments, including green gardens, big trees and quiet calm. Such environments are excellent places for reading and self-learning.
Wat Domnak, for instance, holds the second largest academic library in the country. This library has been run by the Centre for Khmer Studies since 2010 and contains over 200,000 pieces of written material including books, journals, encyclopaedias, maps, guidebooks and daily national newspapers in English, French and Khmer.
Another pagoda, Wat Saen Teav in Kompong Speu province successfully built a community library that has been running for three years. The library started as a small wooden room and is now being operated out of a large brick building with a variety of books.
This large community library is a vibrant space that allows students and children to spend time learning and reading in an environment that is conducive to independent or group education. Saen Teav Pagoda has also built a garden so that children can read outside the building.
How to finance alternative education
Monks in Cambodia observe Theravada, they are not able to finance these types of educational operations themselves by earning an income like civilians. Instead, pagodas in Cambodia gain financial support mainly from the donations of people who live in the Kingdom and near the pagodas. Cambodians who live overseas as part of the diaspora also contribute to support pagodas.
The donations, which are granted from donors, are used to establish buildings for monks to stay and cover daily expenses, such as water and electricity bills, and even school fees for monks who pursue higher education.
Such community-oriented initiatives through ceremonies, beliefs and traditional values can be a good option to gain financial support for more educational work by pagodas. This finance could be used to manage activities that serve the public like what Saen Teav pagoda library does.
However, if pagodas solely depend on donations from local people, they may not be able to sustain educational activities in the long-term. The government should consider stepping in and providing some state funding for these public programmes that add so much value and learning to underserved rural areas.
The government might also provide non-financial support. For instance, for learning spaces, since pagodas are non-formal schools, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) could help pagodas prepare curriculum or classes. Non-formal classes could also be converted into formal ones by preparing more formal schools, meaning that MoEYS might consider opening classes in pagodas if students find it hard to study in formal schools.
Gender inequality existence
In the process of discussing the additional value that pagodas could add to Cambodia’s educational landscape, it’s important to mention gender. Pagodas in Cambodia accept boys and men as monks, providing housing and educational instruction, while girls and women are not accepted as monks.
Pagoda leaders, or abbots, are male monks who manage the whole pagoda, while the women who do play a role in pagoda life, like Yeay Chi, typically are in a subordinate position.
If more educational opportunities were to take place in pagodas, it’s important to consider gender dynamics of pagodas and to try to understand how traditional gender hierarchies might affect educational outcomes.
For instance, it might be important to make sure that there are women who are involved in running and managing educational programmes put on by pagodas, so that students see more gender equality in the spaces around them.
In the longer term, Cambodia’s Buddhist institutions might consider establishing pagodas for female monks. At least one female-run pagoda already exists, although it operates outside of Cambodia’s Buddhist establishment. For example, Wat Panha Thom accepts only female monks and there is a female abbot.
Sala Wat or pagoda schools might also be run under the management and administration of female abbots, who can facilitate and manage the classes, subjects and other tasks with some support from the relevant ministries and other stakeholders. We might take inspiration from Angkorian Queen Andra Devy. The Queen administered two universities in her time and helped to make Khmer education excel.
It should be acknowledged that educational programmes are complicated. Additional learning opportunities in pagodas might need additional financial support, the participation of key stakeholders, good management and strong community buy-in.
But pagodas have long played influential roles in our communities and have huge potential to become even more central to the academic and intellectual lives of Cambodians by building upon their spaces for learning positive social interaction.
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