MKI founder and managing director Mary K Evjen Olsen (left) and Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron (right) during a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week. MoEYS
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has partnered with MK International Investment and Development Co Ltd (MKI), of Norway to produce more than 70 educational videos over the next three years for teens and adults in the Kingdom.
The cultural content developer signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ministry last week, agreeing to invest $1.8 million for the creation of the “edutainment” programmes.
Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told The Post that the government welcomed cooperation from all sectors to help with promoting quality educational materials for the public.
“The focus of this cooperation is on producing and distributing a total of 72 audio-visual presentations in an entertaining form during the next three years, between 2021 and 2023,” he said.
The purpose of the videos is to improve the level of general knowledge among members of the public age 12 and up who have limited opportunities for advanced education from formal schools and other private academic institutes, according to MKI founder and managing director Mary K Evjen Olsen.
Minister Hang Chuon Naron expressed the government’s pleasure in partnering with MKI to provide Cambodians with diverse video programmes designed for fun and non-stressful learning experiences in various subjects.
Dubbed the “Knowledge Project”, the videos will focus on various topics including health, nutrition, natural sciences, technology, economics and finance, medicine, world geography and history. Additionally, there will be humanities subjects like philosophy, sociology, psychology and global cultural content from literature, music, art and film.
The programmes will be available free of charge on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook as well as the ministry’s E-Learning Digital TV channel which already has more than three million followers.
These programmes constitute the realisation of a 10-year-long personal dream for Olsen, who described Cambodia as a place which captured her heart during her first visit in 2008 as an adviser with Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia.
During that three-year stay until 2011, Olsen and her international team produced a feature-length documentary titled Total Brokenness exposing the crisis of child rape and abuse which was then ongoing. She also produced Women in Their 40s, a TV documentary series for NHK Japan and Asia Media Corp Singapore.
MKI was founded by Olsen and partners in 2005 and currently operates in Europe, North America and Asia.
