Students at the Stung Meanchey school have classes in the Cambodian national curriculum each weekday from 7:45 am to 11:00 am. Those subjects include, Khmer Literature, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science. It also includes Life Skills and Sport. At the end of Grade 6 students sit the national examination for admission to high school. In recent years the pass rate has been 100%. From 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm students at Stung Meanchey learn English. The classes follow the PIO English curriculum based on the Let's Go series of books. Students are assessed at the end of each month.
Stung Meanchey is also the site for the PIO high school. Following approval from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in 2016 PIO provides high school classes for students in Grades 7 - Grade 9. The students follow a curriculum comprising 14 subjects, exactly the same as in public schools.
The rationale for extending PIO to include lower secondary school classes is to increase the likelihood that students graduating from primary school will remain in education and remain at high school until a least passing the Grade 9 examination for admission to upper secondary school (Grades 10 - 12.)
The PIO school at Borey Keila was opened in 2005. Borey Keila is an inner city slum area with many social problems. Thanks to funding from Just World International PIO has been able to provide half-day English classes for up to 350 children each year. The students attend public school for the other part of the day.
Borey Keila provided classes from Kindergarten to Grade 6. As at Stung Meanchey school, students at Borey Keila received all school supplies at no cost They are given:exercise books; stationery; uniforms; toothbrushes They also were provided with lunch and clean drinking water.
In 2017 the situation changed suddenly and PIO was faced with either re-organising the programs or closing the school. A Korean church school which had recently opened attracted one third of the PIO enrolments top their own school. The Korean school offered material support and lessons in Korean as well as English.
However nearly 200 students wished to remain at the PIO school. They liked the teachers and they were learning well. In response PIO reduced the number of classes to four. The lessons are for three hours each day and the students choose either morning or afternoon classes and attend public school classes on the other part of the day.
Borey Santepheap 2 is located 20 km from the centre of Phnom Penh. It was developed in 2007 to house poor families who were forced to relocate from the riverside slums. The area lacked infrastructure and it was difficult for the families there who often had to travel daily to Phnom Penh for work. In addition the area was home to a number of families with AIDS / HIV who had been quarantined in the Tuol Sombo village.
In 2007 PIO received a request from a community leader at the Borey Santepheap 2 village to open a primary school to provide English classes for the children living there. PIo responded promptly and with the help of several donors, including one of the Board members they were able to build a school for the local children.
Initially the school provided half-day English classes for Kindergarten - Grade 2. The students attended public school classes for the other half of the day. Over time the school expanded and extended its classes up to Grade 5. In addition it provided an all day Nursery class. The Nursery class became an important feature of the school, allowing working mothers to leave their children at school all day. This allowed the parents to earn more money for their family and to do so without having to withdraw an older child from school to care for the youngest members of the family.
In 2017 PIO arranged for some of the students at Borey Santepheap 2 to study at the PIO school at Stung Meanchey. That allowed the children to study national curriculum subjects, including junior high school classes with PIO.