A baseline study conducted by VVOB and its consortium partners in Cambodia in the year of 2018, indicates that a substantial share of students in primary and lower secondary education experiences emotional, physical, or sexual abuse in a teacher-child relationship. It further appeared that school leaders and teachers are frequently not equipped for tackling SRGBV.
TIGER was implemented in the province of Battambang, involving the local Teacher Education Colleges (TEC) and 40 primary and lower-secondary schools. The long-term objective is to transform the TEC and schools into centres of excellence for gender responsiveness. To this end, the TIGER team developed a practical hands-on tool, an Action Guide, to support teachers and school leaders to create a gender-responsive school environment. The action guide is anchored in the daily school reality of Cambodia, offering relevant ideas, tools, and information to transform teaching practices and/or school leadership in a gender-responsive manner.
Further, to establish gender-responsive school climates, which are safe and learner-friendly, many stakeholders were involved in the project, including: TEC management, teacher educators, school leaders, teachers, school support committee members and local Civil Society Organisation (CSO) staff members.
The first target group of the project were 68 teaching and management staff of the Teacher Education College (TEC) in Battambang. Their situation is improved through a capacity development trajectory, which was organized so that newly qualified teachers have the competences to enable safe and learning-friendly environments for all children.
The second target group of the project were 480 teachers, school leaders and school support committee members of 40 primary and lower secondary schools in Battambang Province.
Finally, there was a third target group involved, too, namely 5 third party CSOs in Battambang Province. These CSOs are members of the Battambang Education Support Team (BEST), a network of CSOs working on education in Battambang Province.
Identified successful features of TIGER consist of a capacity building trajectory with the TEC management and teacher educators that strengthen teachers’ and school leaders’ awareness and understanding of gender responsiveness.
The TIGER project benefitted too from the support of the Cambodian government as from the start, ensuring a way to generate the evidence base concerning the TIGER project.
