In 2014, computer literacy in Battambang City was so low that the majority of students were graduating from grade 12 without even basic ICT skills, leaving them unprepared for an increasingly digital world.
By 2015, CCT partnered with Grok Learning and the Atlassian Foundation to bring ICT education to Battambang. Rather than setting up our own ICT labs, we collaborated with the city’s public high schools to co-design a new curriculum.
By 2017, all five high schools and the teacher training college were delivering a cloud-based ICT curriculum, guiding students from basic computer literacy to advanced programming, design, and robotics.
In 2018, the $250,000 annual funding from Atlassian ended, forcing us to make the difficult decision to conclude the project.
Historically, ICT education programs launched by NGOs have proven unsustainable, often leaving behind graveyards of unused, broken-down computer labs. We expected the same fate for our project—but to our surprise, it didn’t happen.
The public high schools had the knowledge to continue delivering the curriculum and maintaining the computer labs. They recognised the immense value of the program and were invested in its continuation. As a result, all five schools and the teacher training college secured funding from the Ministry of Education, and the program has been running sustainably without CCT’s involvement ever since.
This project achieved something remarkable: true sustainability.
Encouraged by this unexpected success, we decided to apply the same principles to all our programs. We asked ourselves: Could the local leaders of Battambang District integrate all of CCT’s prevention and early intervention programs into the public sector?
We convened a meeting with commune leaders, village chiefs, school principals, and health clinic directors to propose the idea. Despite the significant administrative burden this shift would impose on the District, they unanimously voted yes. And so, the Village Hive Project was born.
Find out more about the Village Hive model and rollout in Battambang District
Village Hive deep dive