The New Generation School Initiative (NGS) hosted a two-day Forum on Cambodia STEM Mentoring Program on 4^th – 5^th April 2023 at the ASEAN Center for Digital Education locating in Preah Sisowath High School, Phnom Penh. The forum was a face-to-face discussion attended by more than 42 national and international participants who shared their experiences of teaching STEM, climate changes and other challenges.

It is indisputable that STEM are strong drivers of national economies and development, and strengthening STEM education is also globally recognized as embedding solutions to many societal problems like social inequities of course, but also the depletion of natural resources and issues related to climate change and so on. STEM education is now on its way to a broader deployment in Cambodia, but faces considerable challenges. STEM education capacity needs to be developed, and the professional development initiatives supporting this have to be responsive to the local context while steel preserving essential features of what STEM education is all about.

During this Forum, participants will thus learn more about STEM Education in Cambodia, which include Cambodia STEM education policy and initiative in terms of professional development for teachers. It will be the occasion to hear from people with experience in designing and delivering STEM Education in Cambodia, and individuals involved in mentoring teachers in Cambodia.

After visiting two high schools (Preah Sisowath and Boeung Trabaek) in Phnom Penh, they met with key contributors to STEM education in those school to talk about their achievements, then challenges they faced, and their hopes for the future. Expert in STEM education teacher training from Thailand and Singapore have shared their realization and understanding in terms of capacity building, effective models of mentoring and training programmes, and discuss with Cambodian analogues involved in teacher training and professional development.

This forum objective is to identify what could be key feature of a successful STEM Mentoring Program in Cambodia based on successful initiative in neighbours’ countries, and knowledge about the current situation in Cambodia. They found way to mutually align STEM professional development programmes in Cambodia with the country’s national plans and opportunity. This forum is to clarify some of the needs regarding a successful STEM mentoring program, constraints, and opportunities to meet those needs, and begin to devise this program. The forum was favorable to initiate concrete actions toward the recognition of futures school leaders’ participation STEM professional development, and the creation of partnerships for such STEM professional development measure.

On behalf of New Generation School Initiative (NSG), we would thank to the invaluable support of the HEAD Foundation, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport, SEAMEO STEM-ED Center, School leaders in STEM, teacher educators, mentors and other specialists who meet in a face-to-face forum about Cambodia STEM Mentoring initiatives. They have exchanged experiences about STEM education and Mentoring STEM teachers in South-Est Asia, and their goal it to identify key practices in STEM mentoring in the Cambodian context.

For more photo activities, please the link: http://kapekh.org/en/publications-media/25/?cat_id=24