Khmer students teaching Khmer language to Khmer Surin and Khmer Buriram in Thailand

The meeting of Khmer students and Buddhist monks at Buriram Rajabhat University's Centre of Khmer Studies on 7th November.

By Khmerization

Source: Free Press Magazine

A group of Khmer students, with the supports of an overseas Khmer NGO, have on 7th Novemeber formed an alliance with some Khmer Surin intellectuals to create an association to teach Khmer language to native Khmer Surin and Khmer Buriram people living in the northeastern part of Thailand.

This group of Khmer students, who are studying at Thai universities, have cooperated with Mr. Moeung Sonn's Paris-based Khmer Civilisation Foundation and Mr. Chakri Sirisontharanond's Thai-Cambodian Friendship Association based in Thailand's Buriram province to form Khmer Suvarnaphum Civilisation Alliance to revive and teach the Khmer language to Khmer Surin and Khmer Buriram people, who are native Khmers living in Thailand.

In a meeting at Buriram Rajabhat University's Centre of Khmer Studies on 7th November, the group has come up with a number of decisions. Mr. Seng Rathanin, one of Khmer Suvarnaphum Civilisation Association's executive members, told the Free Press Magazine that the meeting had reached an agreement on teaching programs, the curriculum and what books to use in the teaching. "In the meeting, we have raised 4 important points. First, we will form a temporary Khmer Suvarnaphum Civilisation Committee. Second to open the association's bank account. Third, to choose the textbooks and develop the curriculum and fourth, to issue a certificate to graduates", he said.

Mr. Seng Rathanin added that the first textbook chosen is a Khmer Textbook For Foreigners, written and compiled by a famous Khmer professor, who is teaching the Khmer language at one of Japanese universities. The second textbook chosen is the Social Studies Textbook Level I, written and compiled by the Cambodian Ministry of Education.