A Growing Seedling of Religion

Cambodia News
by seiha

Six o’clock in the morning, National Road number 5. Rush hour in Chrang Cham Ress district. A motor-tricycle slows down to pick up commuters. Students crowd on the back. Their destination is Eas Ya Oak Tin School, a language-training and cultural center of the Cambodian Cham. Eas Ya Oak Tin means: seedling of religion.

Every day except Fridays and Sundays, 400 students arrive at the old buildings behind the mosque on National Road 5, about ten kilometers north of Phnom Penh. “The school was established in 1998 by the Cham of the region. Today it is one of the oldest Muslim schools in Cambodia,” says the director Mr. HarChei Zakariya Asmat. “The original idea was to keep up the Cham traditions and language.”

Fifteen years ago, there were no Cham schools in the country. Those Cham who wanted to learn their language and study religion, had to go the mosque. Now, Cham schools up to high school level are found everywhere. Students learn the Arabic language and gain an introduction to the Koran - like how to salute Allah, the Muslim God, which they do five times a day during prayers. However, Cham students also have to attend public school.

“I will not drop out of the Cham school,” says fourth grader Mous Slimin. “My teacher told me that only the Koran can give me happiness after I die.” That’s why he squeezes into the motor-tricycle twice every day first to go to the public and later to the Cham school. “It makes me tired”, says Slimin. He fears that one day he will drop out of the state school and run a business like his brother.

Mar Koctry, an 18 year old student, has chosen another direction. “I want to be a religious teacher because I am afraid that the next generation will ignore the Islamic religion and it will disappear in Cambodia.” Koctry studies at the Muslim secondary school An Ni’mah, also on road number 5. Next year he will have finished the second level of Cham studies. “After that, students are able to teach religion, but they can also find work in Islamic countries,” says religious teacher Seat Fin. This might be an option for Koctry.

The educational system of the Islamic schools which operate free of charge - is divided into three levels. If students pass the first level after five years, they can be selected into the second level, which takes another four years. Almost 70 percent of the students who start will make it into the second level.

In second and third level, students have to study hard: The Koran, which includes Allah’s teachings; Hindis, which is the word of Muhammad; Tarhit or Archida knowledge on Muslim belief; Vichock, the practice and Cham children go to two schools in one day to the public and to the Islamic school.

Ahab, the morality of Islamic people along with See Ross, the history of Muhammad, subjects which most ethnic Khmer have never heard of “All nationalities can study here, this school is not only for Cham”, says the religious president. He claims that many ethnic Cham do not even believe in Islamic religion. “Here, no one is forced to study the Koran and to believe.”

Cham Schools in Cambodia

An Ni’mah School and the Highest Council For Islamic Religious Affairs in Cambodia, responsible for Cham-Khmer students, say that in the year 2006, 2,700 students in the country went to a second level Cham school. In 2002, theywere only 150 officially registered Cham students.

Today, around 500 Cham schools exist in Cambodia, 440 villages are registered in which Cham residents hold a strong majority. According to official regulations, each village should have a Cham school. If more than 100 Cham families live there, it should be more than two schools.

The Author: Chey Sambath.