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06/09/2012

Great news reached us from VVOB Brussels: Ms. Ron Savry who is a teacher at Thmor Chol Primary School in Siem Reap Province has won the international Active Teaching and Learning (ATL) competition!

VVOB is celebrating its 30 years anniversary. To celebrate this occasion VVOB launched an ATL competition for teachers and lecturers in all VVOB partner countries and Flanders. The aim was to encourage them to write a lesson plan that creates opportunities for students and pupils to learn actively and to be involved in the lesson.
In our Cambodian programme the phrase Student Centered Approach is more often used instead of ATL but has the same meaning.

11 teacher trainers, 6 recently graduated secondary school teachers and 9 primary school teachers handed in their lesson plans to VVOB in Cambodia. The secondary and primary school teachers were judged by Teacher Trainers of the Regional Teacher Trainer Center (RTTC) in Kandal and the Provincial Teacher Training Center (PTTC) in Siem Reap. To judge the lesson plans of teacher trainers VVOB asked support from 2 staff members of the Ministry of Education. The judges were pleased to see good use of Student Centered Approaches in the received lesson plans.
After the first selection of best lesson plans a small team of teacher trainers and VVOB staff went to observe the lessons of the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in each category. For each category 3 winners were announced. Here are the Cambodian number 1 winners:

  • Primary: Ms. Ron Savry from Siem Reap Province
  • Secondary: Mr. Khom Phearun, from Tumpuong Secondary School, Kampong Speu province  
  • Higher Education: Ms. Veng Sreymon from RTTC Kandal

Video clips were made of these winning lessons, with the great help of VVOB staff members who put a lot of effort in that. The clips and lesson plans of the “number ones” were sent to Brussels to join the international competition.

It is a great achievement that Ms. Ron Savry from Thmor Chol Primary School in Siem Reap province won in her category with her lesson on currency. She demonstrated a lesson in which her pupils were actively involved through matching different bank notes to be combined into the right amount of money in many different ways. She was able to make the math’s exercise into an enjoyable game. As there was a wedding party close by at the time of the lesson Ms. Savry had a tough task, but the children were only paying attention to her activities in the classroom.

Finally these are the winners of the International ATL competition:

  • Category of Primary Education (finalists from Cambodia, Ecuador, Flanders)
    The winner: Cambodia Ms. Ron Navry
  • Category of Secondary Education (finalists from Cambodia, Flanders and Vietnam)
    The winner: Flanders Ms. Irène Indemans
  • Category of Higher Education (finalists from Cambodia, Ecuador, Flanders, Vietnam and Zambia)
    The winner: Vietnam Ms. Pham Thi Minh Lýõng

These winners will be invited for an international learning trip of which more details will follow later.

To conclude: a big thank you to the VVOB staff members that have put their efforts into the competition!

And congratulations to Ms. Ron Savry with this result to be proud of!