Solutions to issues in education system in Cambodia
I. Introduction
Education is very important for people
around the world. So we need education to build up human resources for the
development of our country and it is also important for development of child. Every
country has their own strong and week of educational system. Nevertheless, educational
system in Cambodia suffered seriously during Khmer Rouge Regime from 1975 to
1979. During 1975 to 1979 all schools were destroyed and all the people who
have high knowledge were killed especially teachers. After that period, we live
as we reborn. All people have nothing for their life like everything seems to
be new. We have to rebuild up the building, schools, and the system of
education again. So the government tried to improve it by cooperate and collaborate
with external aid and NGOs. The state also provides free for primary and
secondary education to all citizens in public school and also citizens shall
receive education for at least nine years. Nowadays, we can see that the
students have no pay the fee; they still have to spend money on other things
such as stationery, textbooks, contribution fee and so on. Moreover, some provinces
students are asked to pay money to
teacher for fee; this is the problem that prevent student in poor families from
attending school. However, Cambodian people still meet with the three mains
problems of education such as poverty, low salary for teacher, and corruption.
II.
The main
problems of education system in Cambodia
A.
Poverty
While the Kingdom of Cambodia is rich in
natural resources, periods of war and internal conflict have left it one of the
world's poorest countries. Cambodia's poor people almost 4.8 million and
90 per cent of them are in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture
for their live, but at least 12 per cent of poor people are landless. Between 6
to 11 years old, Cambodia has about a half a million Cambodian children have no
access to school, then 50% of those who entered grade one dropped out of school
and had to repeat the class. Those problems are caused by family financial
problem. Because of poverty parents have not enough money for all their
children to learn and attending the school. Especially, girls will not let to
school if in their family meet with the financial problem. Their parents will
choose their son to school and let their daughter to find a job in order to get
money to support their family. The thing that happened is because of Cambodian
culture. Parents always think daughter no need to study much as son. Moreover,
in rural area has no school for student to learn. The school is far away from
their house.
B.
Low salary
for teachers
As we know teacher in Cambodia
especially public and secondary school
get low salary for their teaching. Sometimes the salary they get is not
enough to support their family and for their spending every day, so it cause of
teacher lack of commitment in teaching because they receive a small amount of
salary about $150 to $200 per month. Then, they need to find others job to
support their incomes for survival. In Because of that problem teachers are
struggled to find another job to support their family so they will less of
attention in teaching students. Moreover, the way of their teaching will not
good enough to share to their students because the salary is not enough so it makes
them feel not satisfied on their job. In addition, teachers sometime support
their income with a second job. This can affect their own attendance at school,
and can put pressure on the amount of time they have to prepare their lesson.
C.
Corruption
The 2011 corruption
Perception Index, which measures the perceived levels of public-sector
corruption in 183 countries, Cambodia ranks 164th in the order of increasing
levels of corruption (Transparency International, 2011). Not only high-level
officials but also ordinary lower-level officials are involved in corruption in
Cambodia. Thus, Education, in particular, is seen as one of the more highly
corrupt public services in Cambodia. Parents would need to pay off teachers,
head masters, and ministry staff for good scores in examinations, good records
in attendance, and school admissions and transfers. In some cases, they would
need to pay money to avoid unfavorable and rough treatments of their children
by teachers. This problem cause the students get poor education in their study
and finish their high school life with little knowledge.
III.
Conclusions
There are three main problems of education
system in Cambodia like poverty, low salary of teachers, and corruption. In my
opinions, first problem, the government should try to find a way to decrease
the number of poverty in Cambodia. Moreover, the governments should build more
schools in the rural area because nowadays there are not enough schools for students
to learn and governments should focus much on security of students and improve
it in order to cut down parents concern of their children. Second problem, the
government should increase the salary for teacher because the salary, which the
governments provide nowadays, is not enough for their spending. If the salary
is enough for them. They will feel satisfied on their work and try harder in
teaching students to get high knowledge because they no need to focus or find
other job to support their life. For the last problem, low salary can make them
do corruption in education system. When they don’t have enough salary, so they
have to find a way to get more money and the way that they do is corruption
from the parents and students to fulfill their need. I strongly believe that if
the government provides the salary that fit the teachers’ need, so there will
be a decrease or no corruption in our system of education. If the governments
can solve these entire problems, the education system in Cambodia will be better.
