About 50 middle and high school teachers in the coastal province of Koh Kong have attended training on how to present Khmer Rouge curriculum.
The six-day training, organized by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, helps teachers understand the history of the regime and provides them with material to present to students.
Many younger Cambodians do not know what happened during the Khmer Rouge, often because their traumatized parents or grandparents are reluctant to discuss it.
This is the 15th time since 2011 teams from the Documentation Center have trained teachers in rural areas about its Khmer Rouge curriculum. Some 3,000 local teachers have been trained, said Mam Sovann, of the center’s genocide education project.
The course includes a history book and a teaching guide, which help explain how the Khmer Rouge came to power, the atrocity crimes it committed, its fall and its dark legacy.
“It’s essential to ensure that local teachers comprehensively understand the history, alongside with techniques in teaching Khmer Rouge history, in order to make sure that there’s no repetition of such a tragedy, as well as to reconcile Cambodian society,” Mam Sovann said.
Roeurng Makara, a high school history teacher who attended the training, said he had garnered useful tips in teaching about the Khmer Rouge.
“I didn’t experience how brutal the regime was,” he said. “Often, I find it difficult to explain it to my students about why the Khmer Rouge killed its own people. Sometimes they don’t believe me.”
