Room to Read Cambodia

Cambodia is rebuilding its educational system from the ground up after years of upheaval. To aid in this effort, Room to Read Cambodia has led in the field of literacy and girls’ education and works as one of the national government’s primary partners improving Cambodia’s quality of education.

With a gift to Room to Read Cambodia, you can provide life-changing educational resources to children who face the greatest barriers in gaining a quality education. Every contribution goes toward the most pressing priorities, including:

Literacy

Expanding learning opportunities to Grade 3 students

To further support students in strengthening their reading and writing skills, we have begun integrating an improved Grade 3 curriculum and learning materials in more than 80 schools. These materials were developed over the last few years as part of the Inclusive Primary Education Activity, a USAID-funded project, through which Room to Read collaborated with MoEYS and other education organizations to design a stronger, more effective national literacy curriculum.

In 2025, part of your support can help roll out this new Grade 3 curriculum to more Room to Read-supported schools, which will require training teachers on the new materials and strategies early in the year, before the start of the school year in fall 2025.

Training future teachers to unlock the power of libraries

For aspiring teachers, Room to Read is working alongside Teacher Education Colleges and Provincial Teacher Training Centers to provide trainings on how to integrate reading activities and library time into literacy lessons. Future teachers are not only learning how to facilitate read-alouds, paired reading and independent reading activities, but also how to support the effective management of school libraries to ensure all students can find and check out books to support their reading habits.

This work is building off Room to Read’s success in the national adoption of its library model in Cambodia — your generous contribution will invest in activities such as trainings, workshops and support for future educators throughout Cambodia, and enable Room to Read to work hand-in-hand with the government to ensure all students can benefit from capable educators and child-friendly libraries, boosting literacy outcomes nationwide.

Reaching more students, faster

Despite making progress at Cambodia’s national level (the government has adopted Room to Read’s library model and integrated Room to Read’s input to improve literacy curricula for early primary school students), the challenge remains in effectively cascading our resources and best practices to all schools. Recently, MoEYS has invited us to test scale-up strategies to reach more schools and students.

Your support can provide essential resources for Room to Read to explore a broader partnership with MoEYS, which will include training government officials in Room to Read’s approach so it can establish libraries and improve teachers’ skills in all schools across Cambodia. This investment would help benefit far more students, much more quickly, than Room to Read could achieve alone.

Room to Read in Cambodia

Gender Equality

Engaging all students in becoming advocates for gender equality

In marginalized communities throughout Cambodia, secondary school girls are participating in engaging after-school sessions to receive individualized mentorship, peer-to-peer mentorship, and life skills education, which help adolescent girls build and practice the essential skills they need to advocate for themselves and their peers to stay in school and graduate. Over the last few years, we have explored how to include boys in learning more about gender inequalities and biases, and how to challenge stereotypes and behaviors that perpetuate gender inequalities.

In 2025, Room to Read will test a co-ed life skills curriculum that engages both boys and girls together in life skills sessions, toward the goal of fostering more open and dynamic conversations around gender equality and how to work together in transforming outdated gender roles and power dynamics. This work will help inform Room to Read’s ongoing collaboration with MoEYS to ensure all students in Cambodia can benefit from powerful life skills and gender equality curriculum in more schools.

Exploring dynamic life skills programming to prepare adolescents for the future

Room to Read will also be field testing additional, focused curriculum in 2025 around climate justice and financial literacy. Given Room to Read’s initial success in rolling out these curricula in other countries, Room to Read aims to ensure Cambodian students benefit from a wider range of life skills and education relevant to their futures. Cambodian students are at an extremely high risk of being affected by severe climate disasters; for these students, understanding the science of climate change and how climate disasters disproportionately affect women and girls’ educations and livelihoods can help prevent school dropouts during crises, while also inspiring students to become climate advocates in their communities.

Financial literacy, too, is a high-priority topic to ensure more adolescents can capably save and plan for their futures, improving their financial security long-term.