Since the fall of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) in January 1979, various efforts have been made to teach the history of this regime to Cambodians, especially the younger generation, including at school as political propaganda and at home as stories passed from parents to their children. These efforts were neither sufficient nor persistent.
In 2007—28 years later—a new textbook was published: A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), written by Kamboly Dy, a Cambodian researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), with financial support from the Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Institute (OSI). The textbook was reviewed by the Government Reviewing Committee and three years later was approved as a supplementary material in secondary schools throughout Cambodia. Today, 300,000 copies have been distributed freely to students across the country.
In 2009, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, DC-Cam produced a Teacher’s Guidebook to help teachers teach DK history objectively and pedagogically. The guidebook also addresses reconciliation efforts such as the work of the Khmer Rouge tribunal (Extraordinary Chambers), and suggests how to think critically about and beyond that process. A student workbook is also being finalized to help students understand the textbook comprehensively.
From June 29 to July 7, 2009, DC-Cam, with support from Belgium, Sida (Sweden), USAID, OSI, Denmark and others, held a workshop to train 24 national teachers from the Ministry of Education and 15 DC-Cam staff members on DK history teaching methodology and related topics, such as mass atrocities in other countries and international law. International and national scholars participated in and assisted this workshop. In late 2009, DC-Cam with 39 national trainers conducted the second national training workshop through which 180 provincial teachers successfully received this training. At the end March 2010 all participants attended a three-day capacity building workshop to receive more comprehensive information and knowledge before they became teacher trainers for 1,627 commune history teachers.
The first commune teacher training was conducted successfully from April 5-11, 2010 in four provincial training centers: Kampot, Preah Sihanouk, Stung Treng and Kratie. Sixty-eight commune teachers from Kampot, eight from Kep, 28 from Preah Sihanouk, 17 from Koh Kong, 30 from Kratie, four from Mondul Kiri, five from Ratanak Kiri, 18 from Preah Vihear and 15 from Stung Treng provinces participated.
The second round of commune teacher training will be held from May 8-14 in three provinces: Takeo, Prey Veng and Kampong Thom. In total 348 commune teachers are expected to participate. The following highlights the program activity of the training.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Tekeo province, Kok-Thay Eng: 012 95 58 58
Kampong Thom province, Vanthan Peoudara: 012 84 65 26
Prey Veng province: Khamboly Dy: 017 88 39 67
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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