Education policy and administration

As the grade 12 national exam kicked off yesterday, the Ministry of Education said early indicators suggested a marked improvement on last year’s dismal results, though incidents of students caught cheating and others buckling under the pressure of the high-stakes test remained.The two-day exam began ...

On the eve of the grade 12 national exam students across Phnom Penh put down their revision notes and flocked to local pagodas and shrines yesterday, praying that they will pass the high-stakes test – and that the proctors will let them cheat.With testing starting ...

Prayers, blessings and visits to shrines have replaced cheat notes in this year’s Grade 12 exam. ...

Students across Cambodia are preparing for this year’s national high school exam, which will take place Monday. ...

More than 5,600 people have volunteered to monitor the national high school examination next week, an Anti-Corruption Unit official said Wednesday, more than double the number of observers who supervised the test last year. ...

Despite unprecedentedly strict anti-cheating measures being implemented in last year’s grade 12 examinations, the Kingdom’s Anti-Corruption Unit pledged yesterday that punishments will be tougher still for proctors caught selling answers and accepting bribes this time around. ...

The owners of bookshops near the Bak Touk High School would usually be doing a roaring trade at this time of year. The grade 12 examinations each August have long been an annual boom time for the shops where students copied cheat sheets for the ...

Beginning with last year’s Grade 12 national exam, the Education Ministry put a stop to the time-honored tradition of teachers taking bribes to allow students to cheat on the test, drastically reducing the passing rate among students and the profit-making potential for proctors. ...

The Ministry of Education on Monday broke ground on a new Institute of Technology campus in Kompong Speu province’s Thpong district that officials said is being built with funds from the Thai royal family on land partially donated by agribusiness magnate Ly Yong Phat. ...

The national high school exam will take place on August 24, but unlike last year there will be no second chance for those who fail, Prime Minister Hun Sen said. ...

The backlash began Wednesday against a new Education Ministry directive that bans political activities and unauthorized associations at academic institutions, with the country’s largest teachers’ union and various youth groups accusing the government of hypocrisy. ...

The Ministry of Education has issued a directive banning political activism or association at academic institutions, saying it will fine or shut down universities, post-secondary schools and student organizations that have engaged in or promoted political activity. ...

With the Grade 12 national high school exam about two weeks away, a group of five NGOs sent a letter to the Ministry of Education on Monday asking the government to prevent guesthouses from hiking their prices for students who have to stay overnight in ...

Almost half of Cambodia’s youth named future employment as their biggest worry, a new study by a local coalition of youth groups shows.Asked about their major worry in life, 49 percent of respondents aged between 15 and 35 said that not being able to find ...

One month before the nationwide test for university admissions, the Education Ministry warned that this year there will be no second chance. ...

A deal signed Thursday with the China Law Society will give Justice Ministry officials access to scholarships at Chinese universities and see Beijing fund the construction of a legal research center in Cambodia, ministry spokesman Chin Malin said. ...

The Education Ministry plans to improve the quality of education in primary schools across the country by enforcing stricter protocols for teaching hours, said Education Minister Dr. Hang Chuon Naron on Thursday.  ...

More than 20 memorials have been built in Cambodian high schools since 2010, in an effort to educate young people about the Khmer Rouge. The aim of the project is to teach about genocide in order to prevent its return. ...

The Education Ministry is failing students by not doing enough to improve schools before graduates face tougher competition from their Asean peers, the head of the National Assembly’s education commission, Yem Ponhearith, told Khmer Times. ...

The Ministry of Education plans to spend less than its allocated $3 million budget for the upcoming high school exit exam due to a decrease in this year’s exam registrants, an education official confirmed yesterday. ...

Hean Chanthorn, 20, a grade 12 student from Chea Sim Santhor Mok High School in Phnom Penh, says he wakes at 4 a.m. every morning to revise. He heads to school at 6 a.m. and stays there until 7:30 in the evening. After dinner, Chanthorn ...

Up to 1,500 new educators, almost all exclusively Muslims from the Cham Community in Cambodia, will be recruited to join the country’s teaching force. ...

Nearly 150 teachers across five districts in Kampot province have signed a petition demanding the government pay them monthly rural posting bonuses they say are now nine months in arrears. ...

Public and private universities are experiencing an exponential rise in the number of students opting for two-year associate degrees rather than four-year bachelor’s programs following last year’s disastrous high school exit examinations, education officials said yesterday. ...