Teachers Who Change The World: Phalla Neang

Phalla Neang coordinates a programme of 145 inclusive classes in Cambodia

At a time when people with disabilities were largely excluded from education and society in Cambodia, Phalla Neang became the country’s very first Braille teacher. Today, she is the school’s head and coordinates a national education programme for students with visual impairment, including 145 inclusive classes, and nationwide advocacy campaigns. Phalla works for the Cambodian non-profit organization Krousar Thmey which was the first NGO supporting vulnerable (and disabled) children in the country. Krousar Thmey has been supported by Light for the World since 1996 on projects aiming to develop access to education for children with visual impairment.

In 2000, Phalla Neang contributed to turn the Krousar Thmey special education program into a unique mix of special and inclusive education. Children with visual impairment can now attend public school as other children, receiving only extra-classes at KT special schools. This lead to incredibly fast results: after only 13 years of implementation, the first blind students passed high school exams in 2006 and entered university.

Phalla Neang: “I started working with blind and low vision students in 1986, in the refugee camps in Thailand where I was working as director and teacher of the only school for disabled children of the camp. I was very impressed by the ability of blind students to understand, learn and move around without needing any help. So when I came back to Phnom Penh in 1991, I started working for the NGO Krousar Thmey. For more than 20 years I have been a Braille teacher, teacher trainer, school director and coordinator of the only program providing formal education to blind students in Cambodia since 1993: the Education for Blind programme.”

In 2015, Phalla Neang was selected among the top 10 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize that honours the ‘best teachers in the world’ annually.