Nearly 100 High Schoolers Receive PLF Scholarships!

By Gillian White

Nearly 100 students are either heading to 10th grade or continuing in grades 11 and 12 this year due to our generous scholarship donors. With your help, we’re doing our part to change the ugly national high school graduation rate.

Angkor High 10th grade scholarship students.

We’ve conducted interviews over the past few months to determine need and have selected and notified those students chosen for scholarships. There are more than 30 new scholarship recipients heading to grade 10, most of whom are former Knar, Tchey or Wat Bo sponsored students. Additionally, almost 70 students are continuing their sponsored studies in grade 11 and grade 12.

PLF Program Director Gill White and Field Director Rany Ly interview a potential scholarship student's family in their home.

Though Cambodian high schools are public and therefore open to even the most destitute children, the poor ones would never be able to pass each grade or their national exams without sufficient funds to cover extra subject classes, English tutoring and the cost of government documents which are necessary for taking exams. This year, we also asked many donors to help in purchasing new bikes for these high schoolers, as the bikes, which they received in 7th grade, are broken and irreparable by 10th grade. These bikes are necessary as most of our students live at least 30 minutes away by bicycle from their respective high schools.

Thank you for giving these students a chance to get a high school diploma. Currently only 3% of the Cambodian population finishes high school. And we’re going to slowly but surely raise that number and make sure that even the poorest Cambodian children receive a high school degree.