The iLEAD Community Centres are the regional coordinating offices of rural community preschool clusters. These centres manage social development components and provide essential and holistic community services including a rural community preschool, health and nutrition, parental education, agriculture development, youth engagement and environment and climate change awareness. A unique feature of the iLEAD model is that the community preschools are a focal point for addressing issues prevalent in rural Cambodia that can negatively impact children’s growth and development. The holistic community based approach ensures the listed services are available to complement our community preschools and thus influences positive parental behaviours that benefit the child beyond the school setting.

The Aide et Action Cambodia (AEAC) ECD project launched in 2009 and has been working together with local government authorities and community leaders in Kep, Kandal, Takeo and Prey Veng provinces delivering preschool services based on the Three Pillar approach. The project has successfully established 40 rural preschool services, both as community preschools and preschools established within public schools, and has plans to reach 50 community preschools in 2015, 100 preschools in 2016 and 150 preschools in 2017. AEAC co-funds the teachers’ salaries, the construction of school facilities and the provision of teacher training and school materials. The project partnership structure facilitates collaboration and local actor buy-in, to achieve sustainable and holistic ECD service delivery for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the targeted areas. In 2014 the preschool project transitioned to iLEAD. With ongoing support from AEAC iLEAD continues to finance the community preschools and provide continuous teacher training, educational materials and school infrastructure repair into the future.

The iLEAD International School is part of a broader strategic enterprise strategy that will also provide complementary services to the iLEAD Community Centres, namely the iLEAD Teacher Training Centre, currently based at the iLEAD International School. The centre provides training and resources and is also the quality assurance arm of the iLEAD Community Centre preschool service delivery. Faculty from iLEAD International School deliver training to the teachers of the iLEAD Community Centre preschools in modern, child-friendly pedagogical methodology.

The iLEAD Teacher Training Centre also seeks to create a professional Community of Practice for all educators in Cambodia that will result in professional development, mutual learning and networking opportunities, in addition to teacher training.  It will provide greater access to preschool teacher training to address the teacher shortage in Cambodia and improve the quality of nationwide preschool teaching. The training centre will work with government education authorities to influence national education policies and curricula, and advocate for better ECD educational services in Cambodia.