ASIA/CAMBODIA - Educational training for working with children in the Vicariate of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh (Agenzia Fides) – “New wine cannot be poured into old wine skins.” This phrase from the Gospel has been at the heart of the reflection for the training seminar for preschool teachers at the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh, recently held in the Diocesan Center in Sihanoukville. Local Church sources have informed Fides that the seminar was attended by 38 preschool teachers working in diocesan institutions that began in the area in 2002 and are now serving 800 children.
The teachers’ training is especially focused on a deeper knowledge of the reality and personality of children (as in the case of the teaching method of Maria Montessori), as the teachers have a delicate task in accompanying them in their physical and moral growth.
The seminar reminded all its participants of the need for renewal, working with the challenges of the modern world, and of the beautiful task of educating the children of the Third Millenium, through their transmission of the values of the Christian faith and living in society. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 18/9/2008)