About Phon Toum Primary School

Phon Toum Primary School was established in 1974 and has a current enrolment of 322 students (168 boys, 154 girls) and employs 6 teachers (2 men and 4 women). All of the students who attend the school come from Phon Toum village and either walk or bike to school. The school grounds contained two buildings; one with five classrooms and a teachers’ room which was built in 2011 and still in good condition. The other building, built back in 1974 when the school was first established, was in critical condition. Due to termites and intense weathering from years of rain and hot weather, the structural integrity of this building was weak and vulnerable to collapse. Only one classroom was being used as the safety risk was too great in the other classrooms, creating an additional issue of overcrowding. In an effort to alleviate these problems, we constructed one new school building with five furnished classrooms and a teachers’ room to replace the deteriorating building in critical condition. The new classrooms offer a safe and more motivating learning environment for the students and teachers. The construction of the new building emphasises the importance of education to the whole community and provides an incentive for the children to continue and complete their education. We also built four new toilets to help improve the sanitation standards at the school and prevent hygiene-related illnesses, especially as student enrolment continues its upward trend.