Visiting a floating village school is a favorite stop on some tours. We choose not to go in. Here are our thoughts.
School on the lake
The Tonle Sap Experience does its best to give guests an authentic experience of life in the floating villages. We hope you get a real introduction to what life is like for Cambodians living on the Tonle Sap, and we want the trip to be educational as well as sightseeing: you will learn about Khmer culture, community life and day-to-day experiences on the lake. (If you are still choosing a village, here is which Siem Reap floating village is best.)
Part of that is learning about education and the village school. It is fascinating how schooling has adapted to the lake, and very different from what you probably experienced growing up. Children go to school by boat for half the year and on foot under the houses for the other half. Finishing school is challenging: there are logistics (taking a boat to get to school), out-of-pocket costs (teacher fees and school supplies), and the cost to the family of a child studying instead of working to support their parents. Most of our guides went through these schools themselves, and we will talk about all of this on the tour. Please ask questions; it is one of the best conversations on the boat.
Why we don't go in
While we want guests to learn about education, we are concerned about students becoming tourist attractions themselves. At the popular villages, tourists stop at the school with an untrained guide, interrupt the class, take selfies with the students, and hand out sweets or buy things for them. This can happen every ten minutes through the afternoon, which is very disruptive to the children's studies.
In recent years this has also created a floating village school scam. Vendors sell notebooks and snacks outside the school well above the market price, and at Chong Kneas drivers have taken visitors to a shop where they are pressured to buy rice "for the students", at high prices and with no way to check that it ever reaches them. There have been many reports of the supplies going back to the shop afterwards, with a commission for whoever brought the visitors. It is disheartening, because it plays on visitors' kindness and leaves them feeling upset. Our scams guide has more.
What we do instead
Because of these issues, our boat passes the floating village school without stopping. We understand that meeting students is an interesting experience, but we don't want them to be the tourist attraction or to disrupt their studies, and we don't want to support the vendors who have set up nearby.
While we don't go inside, we do pass close by, so you can see what a floating village school looks like on the lake. Your guide will talk about education in the village and their own experience of school in Cambodia.
If you would like to help the people who live on the lake, the best way is through an established, registered organization working here. We recommend The Lake Clinic Cambodia, which has been doing great work for residents of the Tonle Sap for many years, bringing free health care by boat to remote floating communities. And if you would like to put money into the village itself, spend in it at the normal price: your boat ticket supports the boatman and the community, and a drink from a village shop supports the family that runs it.
If you have any questions about this policy, please feel free to email or WhatsApp us. We are always happy to talk about it, and always looking to improve our tours.
Frequently asked questions
Can I visit a floating village school?
Not with us. We pass the school by boat so you can see it, and your guide will tell you about school life on the lake, but we don't go in, so the children's lessons aren't interrupted.
How can I help the schools on Tonle Sap Lake?
The best way is to give to an established, registered organization working on the lake, rather than buying rice or notebooks from a shop or boat near the school. We recommend The Lake Clinic Cambodia, which brings free health care by boat to remote floating communities. You can also support the village simply by spending in it at the normal price.
Is the floating school a scam?
There are many legitimate schools on the lake, and a real, working school would generally not let a boat of visitors stop in. But there is at least one "school" that opens for tourists only, and shops and sellers have grown up around these visits, selling supplies "for the children" at well above the market price, with no way to know they reach any students.