Cambodian lawmakers, educators discuss reform measures for educational system

 

Photo/Kem Sokha's Facebook

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) -- Approximately 200 lawmakers, educators and civil society and development partner representatives met here on Tuesday to discuss reform measures to improve educational system in Cambodia.

Organized by the National Assembly of Cambodia, the seminar was opened by Kem Sokha, 1st vice-president of the National Assembly, and attended by Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron.

Kem Sokha said currently, education has seen remarkable progress, however, work still needs to be done in order to further improve the quality of education in this Southeast Asian country. "The seminar is very important for discussing and exploring solutions in order to ensure that our investment in education produces satisfactory outcome,"he said.

He added that the quality of education in Cambodia still lags behind some countries in the region and the world due to low budget for education expenditure and teaching quality.

According to the budget law, Cambodia allocated 453 million U.S. dollars for education sector in 2015, up 26 percent year-on-year.

Hang Chuon Naron said Cambodia now has more than 7,000 primary schools with about 2 million students, 5,750 secondary schools with 900,000 students, and over 100 tertiary schools with 100,000 students. "Cambodia has attained great achievements in developing education sector,"he said. "Currently, 98 percent of the parents send their children to school."