2025 年 16 巻 2 号 p. 204-209
In rural Cambodia, inadequate school facilities and a shortage of classrooms continue to constrain children’s access to education, despite increasing parental demand for schooling. Equally critically, the legacy of the Pol Pot era disrupted traditional forms of cooperation, eroded trust among villagers, and left many communities with limited experience in collective action. These conditions have made the concept of ’community’ fragile and underdeveloped, posing significant challenges for rural development. To address both the educational and social dimensions, this project introduced school construction not as an end, but as a strategic entry point for community development. In the fiscal year 2024, the project was implemented in four primary schools in Tboung Khmum Province. At each site, school construction committees composed of local residents and teachers mobilized donations and labor, supervised construction progress, and practiced joint decision-making and accountability. Through these processes, residents began to rebuild trust and recognize the value of working together for a shared public good. After construction, contributions were reinvested into community development funds, which initiated small-scale businesses, such as community loans, chicken raising, fertilizer sales, and agricultural product collection. The profits from these activities are intended to be reinvested in education as revenue grows, reinforcing a cycle that links improved learning environments with community-led economic activities. The results suggest that school construction, when strategically positioned as a driver, can not only improve educational infrastructure but also foster cooperation, ownership, and self-reliance among rural Cambodian communities that have historically lacked strong traditions of collective action.
