Huawei Cambodia is using its telecommunications expertise to connect students and teachers in rural areas under the theme “Together Narrowing Digital Gaps”.

On Monday, the Chinese telecommunications giant contributed laptops, internet routers and mobile phones to the Department of International Studies (DIS) at the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Institute of Foreign Languages.

It comes as part of Huawei Cambodia’s efforts to support the 2021 Community Project initiated by DIS – a pilot scheme to support the Sok An Samrong High School and the Hun Sen Chan Thnal High School, both in Takeo province.

Students from the Royal University of Phnom Penh attended the event. Heng Chivoan

“When I cycled to these rural areas, I found that more than 100 teachers had been unable to teach and 2,000 students unable to study either physically or virtually for over a year since the Covid-19 outbreak,” head of DIS Dr Neak Chandarith said at the handover ceremony held at Huawei Cambodia’s offices in the capital.

The equipment will assist teachers and students at both high schools to continue learning in an effective way, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when education has been disrupted.

Huawei Cambodia handed over technical equipment including four laptops, four Huawei mobile routers and five Huawei smartphones for currently continuing virtual teaching and learning, and for the future.

The Community Support 2021 initiative is aimed at reducing the digital gap and promoting digital literacy in the Kingdom.

“While a number of teachers own personal laptops, none of them is able to conduct online teaching using the resources available because they lack digital literacy, which is essential in making their teaching more effective, efficient and relevant,” added Chandarith, who initiated the project.

Students from DIS will visit the schools to train teachers on best conducting online teaching and students on how to best learn from it during the Covid-19 period.