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Friday 22 June 2012

Education and its role in Cambodia

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Friday, 22 June 2012
By Soma Norodom 
Phnom Penh Post

Education in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge Regime mirrored the French system. Today, it is six years of primary school (grades 1-6), three years of lower secondary school (grades 7-9), and three years of upper secondary school (grades 10-12), following more of a westernised educational model.

In 1979, after the Pol Pot regime, the Ministry of Education was created, and later restructured in 1998. Today, there is no legislation in place to regulate the new system, and also, only a small budget is allocated to education by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Do we have a problem here?

According to UNESCO, only 1.6 per cent of Cambodia’s Gross Domestic Product (GNP) is spent on education. The GDP on education in most western countries is anywhere between 5.5 to 6.4 per cent.
In Phnom Penh, I see more Lexus cars than anywhere else in the world, and I hope the money allocated isn’t going to purchasing Lexus cars, the luxury car made by Toyota.


The government still denies the education sector the funding it needs, even though they are aware of the important role that education plays in the development of the country.

The main focus of the education system is on basic literacy.

Having worked in the education sector, and having former colleagues and friends who work in education, we have witnessed unethical acts by teachers and the corruption in the education system.

The dilemma which many teachers are faced with is whether to cross the line between the ethical code of teaching and trying to survive on a teacher’s low salary.

Their decision is based on survival, and many have resorted to charging their students tuition fees and taking bribes for “passing grades” in examinations.

Also, many spend less time in the classroom as they have additional employment elsewhere to supplement their low teaching salaries.

In addition, the classrooms are under-equipped and lack proper teaching materials due to the shortage of funding. In several cases, much of the equipment and supplies have been stolen by staff
members at their institutions.

With these problems facing the education sector, and the school-age population continuing to grow, the government still denies the funding it needs to realise its important role in the development of the country.

Why not pay the teachers a higher salary so they can focus on just one occupation, as a teacher, a much needed role in our society. Implement programs to provide free education to all the children, not just selected individuals or groups.

Countries like Brazil, Greece, Denmark, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Barbados provide free education which is funded through charitable organisations or taxation.

Finally, it is evident that there is a wide gap between the economic classes, with more than half of the population living in poverty in Cambodia.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and there is a small percentage of the middle class, but it is growing.

Education is the only answer to getting people out of poverty and giving a brighter future for the young generations in Cambodia.

The Social Agenda with Soma Norodom
The views expressed above are solely the author’s and do not reflect any positions taken by The Phnom Penh Post.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love to go out with her NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!She got some huge BANH BAO! Choy Oi!

Anonymous said...

the problems are the khmer language itself. the media, both prints, radio and tv use one set of language, the monks use another set and the daily usuage of the language is almost another language altogether. to speak khmer, you have know pali, Sanskrit and indiginous native khmer. it not uncommom to convey one concept in khmer with various combinations of pali sanskrit and khmer. it requires too much resources and times to educate a child. writing systems needed update....30 plus vowels is overkill and there are also independent vowel as well. there are only 5 vowels in English and it is the international Business language.

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong, when you have all the basics of the Khmer Language (Pali, Sankskrit and Ingiginous native Khmer) It will be easier for you to learn other foreigner languages.

Anonymous said...

Anh thoung em thoi...

Anonymous said...

Jkoud jrooq te dourng ah Yuon nis...

Anonymous said...

She probably just wants publicity because of her last name is Sihanouk,who is her mother by the way? Was her mother one of Sihanouk's concobine ? I haven't haven't heard of this name before.No offend,just want to know...

Anonymous said...

Toi thich shianouk's banh xeo thoi...toi yeu thit ba chi rat nghieu qua! Ong Oi!

Anonymous said...

Yuon and Yuon's language are NOT welcome here !!!

Anonymous said...

You sound like jrooq (pigs)oiy ....oiy...oiy...

Anonymous said...

3:05 AM, She is not Sihanouk's daughter. She is the daughter of Norodom Vatvani, one of Sihanouk's great nephews. Norodom Vatvani was the air force chief during the Lon Nol regime and also air force chief during after the UNTAC time from 1993-1997.

Anonymous said...

To June 3rd, 12:39 pm,

Khmer language is one of the easiest language in the world to learn.

Chinese languages,including Mandarin
are probably the worst.
Romance languages ( French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English ) are more difficult to learn than Khmer.
Khmer is PHONETIC, whereas none of the Romance languages, in particular English is NOT.
English is now popular and universal, because of different reasons.

In Khmer, it is simple; you need to
combine one of the 33 consenances, and one of the 18 vowels.
Definitely, you cannot do that in English, except may be 5% of the time.

University Professor