Survey on high school and university students

PEPY is trying to be more effective in implementing our work and responding to the needs of the community – especially the students who receive direct benefit from our work. In order to do that in the right way, we decided do the research to find out the real needs of our beneficiary.
In January 2013, PEPY management team formed a research with students and teachers in Kralanh high school, and parents in the community as well. We tried to dig as much information as much we can so we also interviewed  students from Kralanh district who are pursuing the bachelor degree at university. Our questionnaires focused on different areas between high school and university:
In High School our research focused on:

• General statistics
• How students spend their time
• Services available
• Students challenges during High School
• Students’ ambitions
• Students’ challenges beyond High School
• Students’ challenges in self development
• Scholarships available

With university students our research focused on:

• Subjects studied
• Universities attended
• Living cost
• Challenges for university students
• Identified needs
• Organizations in Siem Reap providing learning services

Results we got from the research
University students identified that they need:

• Mentors. Students would like to be able to turn to someone for advice. They feel that other than their studies they don’t have connections with people that they can learn from.
• Leadership Training. Students feel they don’t have good enough communication and problem solving skills. They are also unsure about how to approach the job market, how to become a good manager, and how to be successful at what they do in general.
• Extra skills. Many jobs require candidates to have a high level of English or another language and good ICT skills.
• Work experience. Many employers look for candidates with relevant work experience or internships.

High School students
Students want to continue to the university but face the following challenges:

• Their family cannot support them to continue their studies
• They don’t know what to do after university
• Many students don’t have a job to support themselves through university
• Students don’t know they should study
• Family situation. Some students were forced to stop studying to help their family make money. Some parents do not understand about the value of education
• Social factor. Many students feel that nepotism and corruption means that jobs and opportunities only go to certain people, and that they don’t have the networks to penetrate that circle. This is demotivating for them. They also feel like they don’t know what opportunities are available to them as they do not often travel outside of their community. Young people at this age also struggle with negative influences from other peers that make it difficult to keep focused on their education.
• Self motivation. Some students aren’t interested in studying. They are motivated more by material possessions which serve as status symbols with their friends.

This result of this research will help us in the next stage of PEPY program development.