EC English Language Centres has partnered with United World Schools to build a second school for young children in north west Cambodia.
The school was built in Don Lo, and follows on from the 2016 construction of a similar school in Ban Houy. Both schools will accommodate 200 local students and teach basic skills such as numeracy, music and Khmer literacy. Each school cost EC around $30,000 to build, and approximately $10,000 to maintain each calendar year.
“It’s important to us to reach out to those who are not able to reach out to us”
The EC partnership with UWS forms part of the ELT company’s corporate social responsibility charter, which is based on “the pillars of Sustainability, Education and Community” according to a statement.
Much like after the first school was built, EC plans to send a team of volunteer staff members to Cambodia to meet with children, parents and students, and assist with the set-up of the institution.
EC’s executive chairman Andrew Mangion said the company finds it important to “give back” but also to reach out to communities that “are not able to reach out to us”.
“At EC, we believe it’s important to give back to the communities who have so graciously accepted us and our schools into their cities and neighbourhoods, and we do so through various volunteer community projects. But it’s also important to us that we reach out to those who are not able to reach out to us, and that we do what we can to give them a chance at an education,” Mangion said in a statement.
EC has also sponsored two of UWS’s Cambodian staff members to travel to the UK and attend EC’s language school in Brighton to improve their English and learn educational techniques to share with staff in Cambodia.
EC’s head of corporate social responsibility, Dan Woodard, told The PIE News this sponsorship will continue, but only every other year for operational reasons.
“It is a very useful way to develop English for their teams, and also to cascade learnings around teaching methodology down to local teachers in Cambodia. However, from an administrative perspective every other year makes it easier for UWS to manage. We will therefore accommodate two more UWS workers in 2019, and again in 2021,” he said.
“United World Schools are immensely proud of our partnership with EC. We look forward to further developing our partnership and providing education to even more of the world’s poorest children,” UWS CEO Tim Howarth added.
