This week all fourteen of our 9th grade students passed their national tests.
Our students are required to take their national tests at the neighboring public school.  The public school helps write the tests, which we are not apart of, but we are allowed to be there to help grade the tests and to ensure it is fair.  As the grading was being done it became evident that all our students had passed to which one of the public school teachers got a bit upset saying out loud “come on not one of them failed, there’s got to be something wrong”.   I tell you, we love such moments, we gleam with pride to hear the other teachers jealousy when we do well.

I’m told the test was worth 500 points and that two of our students tested very well with scores around 460 which is a B I think.  It may not sound so fantastic.  I would guess to say out of the 300 students in the test, maybe less than 10 kid will get a B or higher.

Statistics say 40% of the Cambodian children will drop out of school this week because they fail the 9th grade test, because they can’t read or write yet and also the students sadly are old enough to start working.   Statistic also say another 20 to 30% will not pass their 12th grade test and will drop out.

With so much working against the kids future perhaps it’s why we’re so pleased when they do well.

I’ll see if we can add a photo to this post come Monday.