IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research article
erd

The ‘Jorani Project’: Incorporating Principles of
Sustainable Rural Development into the Education System
of Cambodia
ROBERT J. MARTIN
University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
Email: bob.martin@une.edu.au

WENDY MATTHEWS
Wellington, Ontario, Canada

STEPHAN D. BOGNAR, NARAP OURM AND KYNAL KEO
Maddox Jolie Pitt Foundation, Battambang, Cambodia
Received 11 January 2010

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract An illustrated children’s book “Jorani and the Green Vegetable Bugs” has been
published in Khmer language to teach children and teachers in rural areas about integrated
pest management (IPM) in upland crops and the positive impacts on the environment andhuman health in Cambodia. The project involves introducing the Jorani Project to school
directors and teachers; development of a teacher guide; implementation in schools; andcelebration and public launch. Further books in the series are planned to teach the benefitsof other sustainable land management practices. The project targets five primary schools
in northwestern Cambodia in the district of Samlout in Battambang Province where the
Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sport (MoEYS) is working to strengthen primary education for all school-agedboys and girls. The potential to achieve the stated agricultural extension and primaryeducation objectives will be evaluated after completion of the pilot project. Social network
analysis will be used to test the effectiveness of the proposed learning environment model.
Depending on the findings, a Life Skills framework for rural primary schools will
presented to the MoEYS for endorsement and roll-out to primary schools in other Districts
and Provinces in Cambodia.
Keywords rural development, primary education, life skills, crop diversification, foodsecurity, nutrition

BACKGROUND
Since 2003, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has funded two
projects in upland areas of Cambodia to help reduce poverty and contribute to food security
through the development of sustainable farming systems for upland crops such as maize, soybean,
peanut, mungbean and sesame. The original ACIAR project involved discussion with farmers,
validation of local knowledge, documentation of case studies and agronomic field experiments. The
project was conducted in collaboration with the Cambodian Agricultural Research & Development
Institute (CARDI) and with support from the Cambodian Department of Agricultural Extension in
the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (MAFF).
The approach of the ACIAR project (Farquharson et al., 2010) has been to first investigate anddemonstrate new technologies or improved practices in a farming systems context through a
network of on-farm trials and demonstrations. These are combined with village workshops to
identify the social and economic constraints to adoption of new technologies and changes inmanagement practices. “Crop Profit Groups” of local farmers have been formed to assess the
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provides outside expertise in a co-learning environment with local farmers, government advisers
and NGOs. Education and capacity-building for Cambodian collaborators has been an importantpart of the work.
Various extension publications have also been produced targeting agricultural extension
professionals and tertiary agricultural educational institutions. These publications have a highpotential for impact on the profitability of small-holder farms, leading to poverty reduction, andfood security. Extension materials directed at farmers, however, are somewhat ineffective becauseof the low literacy levels in the rural areas of Cambodia. It was thought that production of
educational material for rural primary school children and teachers could improve the flow of new
agricultural information to farm families.
The idea for the Jorani Project arose when it became evident that government agencies did nothave the physical infrastructure or human resources to implement extension messages such asenvironmentally friendly agriculture to the local communities in a sustainable way. MJP, working
with teachers and school directors in the region since 2006 to reach the UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDG 2) in primary education, identified the primary school classroom as apotential vehicle to not only deliver the messages, but also create child friendly life skill ‘farming’
activities for both the teacher and student.
To move the project forward, ACIAR agreed to publish an illustrated children’s book createdby a team of authors, including local Samlout teachers to raise awareness on sustainable green
farming practices. The book, called “Jorani and the Green Vegetable Bugs” is to complement thesecond ACIAR project “Enhancing production and marketing of maize and soybean in northwestern Cambodia” (ASEM/2006/130) which commenced in 2008 and runs to 2011. The aim of
the ACIAR project is to improve the functioning of the production and marketing system for maize
and soybean in north-western Cambodia as a key to increasing cash income, sustainable growthand poverty reduction for small-holder farmers. The project facilitates the sharing of knowledge
and information at all stages of the value chain from farmer to end-user.
The Jorani Project will teach children in five target schools in Samlout about integrated pest
management (IPM) in crops and the positive impact on human health and the environment. If thepilot is successful, further books in the series are planned to teach the environmental benefits ofreduced cultivation and burning in crop production, and also the value of wildlife conservation andhealthy eco-systems.
Jorani’s success will also be linked to the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation’s environmental
youth program. In 2008, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) gave approval to
MJP to create a youth program called ‘Eco-Rangers’, a club designed to help Samlout’s children
and their families explore and learn about their environment. The Jorani Project will be included inthe ‘Eco-Ranger Club’ initiative. It will establish links between agriculture and other community
activities such as those directed to improving human health and nutrition.
Teacher training in Cambodia may include a variety of agricultural topics such as chemicaland organic fertilizers, insect pests, IPM, rice production, water usage, land preparation andchicken-raising. Most school directors, however, do not develop or implement the given
Government agriculture curriculum, instead pushing it into the voluntary Life Skills program.
Unfortunately, most teachers use the time allocated to Life Skills for clean-up day, presumably
because of lack of teacher training and life skills resource materials for teachers.
The Jorani Project could easily be integrated into the Life Skills program if teachers areprovided with resources, appropriate training and technical support from agricultural experts. This
strategy has been achieved in other countries. For example, Hoppers (2007) noted that the need forlife skills development as a core set of competencies is accepted in countries such as Brazil,
Namibia, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Thailand. In Cambodia, however, little appears to have been
done to include these types of activities in school curricula. Part of the problem appears to be thattechnical expertise for life skill subjects such as agriculture is provided by different government
ministries and teachers might find it difficult to access appropriate information. This is the case in
Cambodia where tertiary agricultural education is administered through the Ministry ofAgriculture, Foresry and Fisheries. It is important to note that MoEYS officials advised MJP that

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previous attempts to introduce life skills programs had not been sustainable in Cambodia and thatany project will need to have clear goals and be coordinated through MoEYS.
The Jorani Project is a case study to see if agricultural content can be incorporated into the life
skills program. Benefits to primary education at student, teacher and system level will need to be
demonstrated as well as improved uptake of agricultural technologies. Taylor and Mulhall (2001)
carried out research on linking learning environments through agricultural experience to enhance
the learning process in rural primary schools in Tanzania, Sri Lanka, India and Ethiopia. They
examined the way in which teachers in rural primary schools link the formal school curriculumwith the life experience of their pupils, particularly in relation to agriculture. They found thatteaching aids and materials, particularly those which relate to the local context, were often in short
supply or lacking altogether. Where they were available, teachers’ guides and pupils’ textbooks
often used urban-based examples which were not familiar to children in rural areas.

(a)
(b)

SchoolenvironmentHomeenvironment
The learnerHome

Schoolenvironment

environment

The learner
Community
environment

Community
environment

Influence link
Weak or non-existent link

Fig. 1 Strengthening the learning environment linkages between school, home andcommunity (Taylor and Mulhall, 2001)
Taylor and Mulhall identified three key learning environments for school-going children: theschool, the home and the wider community. They observed that these three learning environments
are often disconnected and the experiences gained in each are seldom drawn together andintegrated in the learning process (Fig. 1a). According to Taylor & Mulhall, weak linkages between
the three learning environments infers that the experiences gained by pupils in school are often
perceived to be divorced from life outside school, not only by pupils but also by parents andteachers. Learning could become more effective if these linkages were strengthened and if theinterfaces between learning environments were maximised (Fig. 1b). Developing life skills
programs that are relevant to rural communities may achieve the outcomes suggested by Taylor &Mulhall.
Other studies in developing countries confirm these observations. Khupe et al. (2009) reported
that education for most rural children has only a small, if any, relationship with students’ lives
outside the classroom. More than 30 years ago, Lindsey (1975) observed that school curricula wereleaving rural children with a low capacity to function within their societies because they lacked therequisite skills. This appears to be true today. The challenge for rural education is not only that ofachieving literacy, but also guaranteeing employment and self-employment of the ‘economically
active’ population (Bouyer et al., 2005). Rural people make their own informal evaluations of local
education, where they check school leavers’ capacity to contribute towards community
improvement. Formal education in many developing nations does not equip students with skills that
could be useful in developing their communities. Acker & Gasperini (2003) emphasized that
relevance of educational programs in rural areas is an important area for improvement especiallywith regard to relevance to local needs.

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It should be noted that in some cases locally relevant life skills programs have met withhostility from parents who do did not see the point of having their children acquire practicalknowledge which they felt they could provide themselves (Atchoarena and Gasperini, 2003). If
parents send their children to school so that they can escape from rural life and find a job in the city
they might not be happy with locally-relevant life skills programs (Bergmann, 1985). Therefore the
Jorani Project will need to obtain feedback on attitudes and beliefs of all participants andstakeholders in the Samlout case study.
THE “JORANI PROJECT”
The purpose of the Jorani Project was to conduct a pilot study in the district of Samlout to:1.
2.

Determine if inclusion of agricultural subjects in the primary school life skills program leads
to improved uptake of new technologies and more sustainable land management practices
Determine if life skills activities in rural primary that are relevant to rural communities canstrengthen the linkages between the school, the home and the wider community.

The MJP education project team examined the curriculum for primary school grades 4, 5 and 6
to determine where the Jorani resource best fitted into the current curriculum. The education teamthen consulted with the agriculture team to produce activities and materials to enhance teachers’
understanding of important content presented in the Jorani book. The education team worked with
the Battambang Provincial Director of Primary Schools to develop a template for the Teacher
Guide. The Director was also invited to be the advisor and possibly co-facilitator for teacher
professional development. The project involved the Samlout district villages of Bueng Run,
Kampong Touk, Kantout, Ou Chrab, Samlout and Sre Reach. The schools involved were:
Kampong Touk, Ou Chrab, Sre Andoung II, Sre Andoung lower secondary and Sre Reach. The
total number of children involved in the project was 638 (Table 1).
In phase 1 of the project a group of 20 teachers and school directors from Samlout district
attended an introductory workshop on IPM run by the ACIAR project at Samlout in October 2009.
The workshop was also attended by the Battambang Provincial Director of Primary Education. The
workshop was in the same format as used for agricultural advisers and key farmers and consisted ofa series of presentations, practical exercises and field activities. Resource materials included aworkshop manual, an insect identification guide, notebooks and data recording sheets. The
workshop covered: an overview of IPM; crop growth and development; insect management
options; insect monitoring techniques; calculating economic thresholds; safe and proper use ofpesticides; personal protective equipment (PPE); and types of insecticides available in local
markets. The illustrated insect field guide provided a brief description of insect pests and thedamage they cause as well as information on a range of beneficial insects and spiders that can befound in upland crops in north-western Cambodia.
Table 1 Samlout District primary schools and numbers of children involved in the Jorani
Project

Ampob Leu
Kampong ToukOu Chrab
Sre Andoung II
Sre Reach
Total

Grade 4
M
F
10
17
9
4
33
31
39
47
36
27
127
126

Grade 5
M
F
0
0
15
2
36
30
43
44
20
21
114
97

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Grade 6
M
F
0
0
0
0
37
26
38
35
15
23
90
84

Sub Total
M
F
10
17
24
6
106
87
120
126
71
71
331
307

Total
27
30
193
246
142
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It is important to note that the education team consulted with MJP’s agriculture team toproduce activities and materials to enhance teachers’ understanding of important content presented
in the Jorani book. The education team also worked with the Battambang Provincial Director ofPrimary Schools to develop a template for the Teacher Guide. The Provincial Director was invited
to be the advisor and possibly co-facilitator for teacher professional development.
Phase 2 of the project involved a three day workshop for all grade 4-6 teachers and school
directors from the pilot schools as well as senior staff from the provincial and district offices of the
MoEYS. The goal of this workshop, facilitated by the MJP education team and an expert teacher
from Canada, was to demonstrate how a resource such as the Jorani book that is based on life skills
important to students’ families and community can be effectively used to develop literacy andscientific skills linked to curriculum expectations. During the workshop teachers learned andpracticed 15 different methodologies such as jigsaw, book making, song creation, puppet plays,
nature colour hunts, interviews and sports games. They created a journal record of eachmethodology and more importantly identified and discussed the skills students would be
developing as they participated in these stimulating child-friendly activities. Discussions included
how the same methodologies could be applied in different subjects within the curriculum. On the
final afternoon teachers and staff developed plans for the next phase – development, timing andimplementation of the IPM Life Skills program they would present using the Jorani book and the
new methodologies they learned.
Phase 3 was designed to ensure teachers are well prepared and confident to provide the IPM
Life Skills program. The design included one full-day training and two half-day workshops forteachers prior to their implementation of the IPM Life Skills program in their classrooms.
At the end of phases one and two teachers still had questions about IPM. Unlike classrooms inthe developed world, students do not have access to the internet and teachers recognize they need
to be the experts. The full-day training will be offered by an MAFF expert to provide sufficient
content in the Khmer language for them to feel comfortable as IPM experts in the classroom.
Resource materials will include an illustrated insect field identification guide and an IPM workshop
manual.
The teachers will then participate in two half day workshops. The objectives of the firstworkshop are to: decide what content about plants, bugs, and pesticides should be covered in eachschool grade; develop their IPM Life Skills lesson plans incorporating some of the 15
methodologies they learned at the previous workshop. During the second half-day workshop,
teachers will complete lesson plans for IPM Life Skills and produce teaching materials for the
program. Teaching materials will be prepared and include school kits with specimens of insects
occurring in local crops and as shown in the Jorani book, insect field guide book and the IPM
workshop manual.
The project is to be implemented in the Samlout schools during January and February 2010.
The teachers were advised to modify the program as necessary to adapt to the needs of theindividual class. Suggestions for school class activities included:• Working in groups to develop dramas based on the story and making costumes or masks tolook like insect characters from the book (there should be a prior class discussion to identify
the important agricultural information that should be built in to the plays);• Simple hand puppets of the good and bad bugs could be made to create puppet shows to act
out the roles of the good and bad bugs;• Making up lyrics about the story and sing these to the tune of a popular song;• Preparation of short speeches on integrated pest management (IPM) based on what waslearned from the book;• Creation of individual insect books or working collaboratively to make a large class book that
could be placed in the school library.
Local farmers, agricultural experts and conservation officers will be invited to the school totalk to the students about their experience using IPM on their farms and the positive impact on theenvironment. Students will develop a series of interview questions ahead of time and one or two
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ask questions. Follow-up activities planned for the early wet season (May-June) include insect
collections and school gardens.
The program will culminate in an open door Celebration Day including games, songs, puppet
plays, displays of work books and artwork (Phase 4). During the event, each child will be presented
with their own personal copy of “Jorani and the Green Vegetable Bugs” to take home. A total of
700 Khmer language Jorani books will be distributed.
CONCLUSION
After completion of the pilot project, the ACIAR project team plans to carry out an evaluation todetermine the potential to achieve both agricultural extension and primary education objectives. It
is expected that the project messages will spread through expanding circles of sharing (like ripples)
among small groups; the whole class; between classes; between schools; at home with parents; andwith the wider community. Social network analysis as described by Borgatti et al. (2009) will be
used to test the learning environment model proposed by Taylor and Mulhall. Depending on thefindings, a proposed Life Skills program for rural primary schools will presented to the MoEYS for
endorsement and roll-out to primary schools in other Districts and Provinces in Cambodia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the Maddox Jolie Pitt
Foundation and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for making this project
possible.

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