SeeBeyondBorders UK, a London-based charity focused on providing access to quality teaching in Cambodian primary schools, has been awarded a Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) grant from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Less than 3% of Cambodian 15-year-olds achieve minimum proficiency levels in Maths, Literacy or Science, and SeeBeyondBorders is seeking to address this learning crisis by training teachers who can implement an educational programme replicable nationwide.

The funding, provided with UK aid from the UK government, will help the charity implement its Embedding Mentoring project. This will:

• Coach and support the District Office of Education to take ownership of the mentoring and continued professional development of their teachers;
• Improve the quality of lessons delivered by teachers in Cambodian primary schools;
• Contribute to improved learning outcomes of primary school children in the district, and
• Showcase a simple model for developing teaching communities of practice for other districts.

SeeBeyondBorders’ Chief Executive Officer, Edward Shuttleworth, said:

“We are delighted with the funding from the Government’s Small Charities Challenge Fund, which will enable us to move forward with our strategy to make a lasting contribution to education system development in Cambodia.

“Our work over the past 11 years has focused on simple yet effective ways to train teachers and embed that learning through peer-mentor support in the classroom, proving that these simple steps can transform learning sustainably.

“We are looking forward to working with the team at the FCDO as we support the District Office of Education in Cambodia to take responsibility for training and mentoring teachers in their area, drawing together the various elements of our work into an approach that is readily replicable across the country.”

SeeBeyondBorders won the UNESCO Hamdan Award (2016) for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing Teachers’ Effectiveness. The mentoring approach pioneered by the charity has been incorporated into the national education reform strategy.

SeeBeyondBorders’ work contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensuring Quality Education For All.