June 24-30, 2010
Since the fall of the Democratic Kampuchea regime in January 1979, efforts to teach Khmer Rouge history to Cambodians, especially the younger generation, have been limited either to official political propaganda or to stories privately shared between parents and children.
Twenty-eight years later, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) published a textbook, A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), written by Khamboly Dy, a Cambodian researcher. It was reviewed by the Government Reviewing Committee and finally approved as a supplementary material for the teaching of Khmer Rouge history in secondary schools throughout Cambodia starting with the 2010-2011 academic year. For the second year in a row, the national high school examination has included five questions on Khmer Rouge history, making the teacher trainings all the more timely and necessary.
DC-Cam has distributed 300,000 copies of the textbook free of charge to students across the country and plans to distribute 700,000 by the end of the year in order to reach all 1,000,000 students grades 9-12. It has also developed a teacher’s guidebook and student workbook to accompany the textbook. With these materials, the Center is currently working with the Ministry of Education to train a total of 3,200 teachers nationwide in methodologies for teaching Khmer Rouge history to students objectively and with pedagogical effectiveness. Over 1,600 history teachers will have been trained before the end of 2010, and an additional 1,600 literature and morality teachers will be trained in 2011.
National and provincial teacher trainings were held in 2009. The two commune teacher trainings have been held in 2010 and the third will be conducted June 24-30with participants from Pursat, Pailin, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, and Svay Rieng.
In advance of the June training, the Ministry of Education has approved a DC-Cam proposal to hang two large banners in all 1700 secondary schools beginning in 2011. These Genocide Education Memorials are intended to reinforce students’ appreciation of the new curriculum’s broader significance for Cambodia and the world and will read: "Learning about the history of Democratic Kampuchea is to prevent genocide," and "Talking about experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime is to promote reconciliation and to educate children about forgiveness and tolerance."
For more information, please contact:
Chy Terith 012 79 53 53; Dacil Keo 023 211 875
A History of Democratic Kampuchea, 1975-1979
Part 1:
http://dccam.org/Publication/Monographs/Part1-1.pdf
Part 2:
http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/Part2-1.pdf
The Teacher's Guidebook
http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/pdf/DC-Cam_Teacher_Guidebook_Eng_Nov_23.pdf
Some photos from the book distribution
http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/Photo_Gallery.htm
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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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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