“With the increasing number of rubber plantations, plenty of job opportunities can be found for girls to work which can benefit to their families and it is always a good thing for girls to stay nearby the families and stay under their shadow”, argued one of the debaters as the first debaters claimed that girls with higher education will improve their lives standard and financial security of their family.
Located at Soung Sang Village, Kroyea Commune, Sontuk District, Kompong Thom Province, an area with high number of girl drop-outs, CCIM conducted a community debate on 7th of February 2020 that focus on the topic “Girls should access higher education as boys “.
Six residents joined as debaters and they were divided into two groups – one group to stand for and the other against the topic. The community debate was witnessed by 45 people, with 24 females, whose ages range from 8 to 74 years old. A group of 12 students from Soung Sang Primary School also joined the event.
Before the debate started, the primary school principal spoke and raised his concern about the rapidly growing drop out of girls and asked the parents’ involvement in encouraging kids to prioritize education since kids spend most of their time with family.
The affirmative group of debaters presented their three arguments: 1] girls and boys have equal rights, and everyone are equal according to the constitutional law; 2] they believe that higher education for girls will bring them necessary skills to contribute in developing the country at all levels; and 3] girls with higher education will improve their lives standard and financial security in the family.
The negative group argued also with three points: 1] boys should be prioritized to education in school due to their stubbornness which it’s hard for parents to educate them alone, while girls are more modest and easy to control and they don’t need much education to have good behavior; 2] either girls with or without high education will otherwise get married to be someone’s else wives and have kids and will end up doing housework; and 3] lots of job opportunities are opened for girls and they don’t need to access to education to earn money and have a job which resulted them to stay away from families.
After more than an hour of presentation of arguments and closing statements, the judges presented their comments and the head of commune ended the event with a closing remark.
The community debate ended with smile and satisfaction from the audience as well as the guest speakers from the local government. The debaters expressed their commitment to continuously promote girls’ education to the people starting from their own families. Almost everyone requested to conduct more activities like this so that the parents and young people will be inspired and encouraged to prioritize education, including higher education. (Ly Sokuntheary)
