Social development
Education and training
Education official promises to repay shortchanged teachers
A technical error caused 57 teachers in Oddar Meanchey province to be shortchanged when collecting overtime salaries, said an education official who promised the problem will be rectified by the end of May. A teachers’ union on Monday asked the Ministry of Education to address some ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-official-promises-to-repay-shortchanged-teachers-58749/
Officials accused of embezzling teachers’ salaries
A teachers’ union has accused education officials in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district of stealing 21 million riel, or about $5,200, that had been slated as overtime payments for primary school teachers. In a letter sent to the Education Ministry on Monday, the Cambodia Independent ...
Ben Sokhean and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-accused-of-embezzling-teachers-salaries-58676/
Farming’s primacy ‘hinders’
Cambodia’s economic productivity is in trouble, struggling with an inability to turn a youthful population into a skilled workforce and stunted by an over-reliance on agriculture, according to a new World Bank report. In Cambodia and Vietnam, diversification of labour from the farming sector contributed to ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/farming%E2%80%99s-primacy-%E2%80%98hinders%E2%80%99
No clubs near schools, Council of Ministers says
The Council of Ministers on Friday passed a sub-decree on the management of adult entertainment clubs and a draft of a new national housing policy to promote home ownership, a cabinet official said. The new Sub-Decree on Management of Adult Entertainment Places, consisting of 25 articles, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-clubs-near-schools-council-of-ministers-says-58464/
Hospital after school
A rowdy 8-year-old boy has accused his teacher of hitting him over the head with a small whiteboard during class on Thursday, leaving him with a bloody head wound. Sok Kim Heng said yesterday that he spat on another student and, in return, his teacher whacked ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hospital-after-school
Report shows workforce still lacks skills
Cambodia lacks the skilled labor force necessary to advance the economy and the government must find ways to create more valuable work as it faces fierce regional and international competition, according to a new report released Thursday by the World Bank. The report, “East Asia Pacific ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/report-shows-workforce-still-lacks-skills-58432/
Ministry seeks to limit cheating during exams
It is exam time in Cambodian schools. But the Ministry of Education warned on Thursday that this year it is working hard to rein in rampant cheating that plagues testing in the country’s schools. ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/ministry-seeks-to-limit-cheating-during-exams/1910571.html
Ministry plans to drag schools into digital era
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is plunging public schools into the digital age with a new interactive technology plan fit with bells, whistles and 3G applications, light-years ahead of its mostly dirt-floor school houses. The five-year, $1.3 million project, developed and funded by Cellcard, ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-plans-drag-schools-digital-era
NTU and Temasek Foundation launch inaugural training programme for senior Cambodian administrators
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Temasek Foundation are launching a new training programme to train senior Cambodian government officials in public administration and governance. ...
Xinmsn News Staff
http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/ntu-and-temasek-foundation-launch-inaugural-training-programme-for-senior-cambodian-administrators
Mechanics school on the way
A new auto-mechanics training school at the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia (NPI) that aims to train select Cambodian youth and support a shortage in the labour market officially commenced construction yesterday. In partnership with the Ministry of Labour, joint sponsors the Korean International Cooperation Agency ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/mechanics-school-way
Minor fraud prompts hard prison sentence
A former civil servant was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison by Kampong Cham Provincial Court for stealing the pensions of 10 retired teachers – a total of $500 – in March 2012. Mang Yusreng, former chief of the Social Affairs Office in Srei ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minor-fraud-prompts-hard-prison-sentence
Med students won’t boycott test
Medical students who vowed on Sunday to boycott the first government-ordered national exams under claims of discrimination backtracked on their threats yesterday. Da Nhel, 27, a representative of the student doctors, said that just hours after threatening to boycott the exams, which were approved by the ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/med-students-won%E2%80%99t-boycott-test
Chinese gov’t invests in language courses
In an effort to bolster China’s cultural influence and expand bilateral ties, the Chinese government last week donated $203,000 to support the Kingdom’s increasingly popular Chinese-language classes. The funding was transferred last Thursday to the Chinese Association in Cambodia, which said it plans to expand class ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chinese-gov%E2%80%99t-invests-language-courses
Cambodian university wins prize for firefighting robots
Cambodia’s beleaguered fire department may have a future high-tech solution to its problems after a team of young scientists from Norton University competing in the 4th Malaysian International Robot Competitions (MIRoC) last week placed third in the Fire Fighting Robot category. The annual event, held this ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodian-university-wins-prize-for-firefighting-robots-56792/
Low salaries stifle education reform efforts
Sao Sothy’s home is small and the furniture is sparse. There are no tables or chairs. In one room, there is a small bed, but her family of four sleeps on mats in the living room. Hanging on the otherwise bare walls is Ms. Sothy’s ...
Emily Wilkins and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/low-salaries-stifle-education-reform-efforts-56752/
Medical students, Gov’t tussle over new exam
About half of the University of Health Science’s class of 2014 risks not graduating this year, having refused to register for a new compulsory final exam. A 2007 sub-decree states that a national-level examination for medical students would be implemented from that academic year onwards. But ...
Sinary Sany
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/medical-students-govt-tussle-over-new-exam-56780/
China donates to encourage Chinese language education at Cambodian schools
The Chinese government on Thursday donated 203,000 U.S.dollars to the Chinese Association in Cambodia to support schools offering Chinese language courses in Cambodia. Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo handed over the money to Duong Chhiv, the president of the Chinese Association in Cambodia. ...
Kong Defang and Liang Jun
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/8601478.html
Thailand trains workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar
Thailand has begun training workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar ahead of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) next year, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported Wednesday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjNhNDg5MDQ1ZWQ
Schools take funding plan to the bank
Like mob deals and black market trades, the Cambodian school budget is dealt in suitcases of cash. Four times a year, the school operating budget is dispersed in stacks of cash transferred from the central bank to the Ministry of Education, eventually ending up with the ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/schools-take-funding-plan-bank
Education Ministry to delegate junior high exam to schools
Education Ministry officials on Monday confirmed that the ministry would no longer organize or oversee the junior high school exam, delegating the process to individual schools. As part of Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron’s reform of the graft-riddled education system, his ministry will forgo coordination of ...
Kuch Naren and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-ministry-to-delegate-junior-high-exam-to-schools-56015/
Cambodia leads doubts over AEC
In a rare moment of honesty a Cambodian official has admitted his doubts about his country’s ability to meet regional expectations in time for the launch of the much vaunted ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. “If you talk about short-term: Yes, we ...
Luke Hunt
http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/cambodia-leads-doubts-over-aec/
Capturing corruption in modern Cambodia
Towering temples and graceful apsaras are missing from a new Cambodia-themed photo show. Instead, camera lenses focused on corruption. The photos show poverty, inadequate sewage systems and parking squeezes at markets. Contest rules allowed photos to be staged—as long as contestants clarified that a photo was ...
Emily Wilkins
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/capturing-corruption-in-modern-cambodia-55812/
Child labor probe on Preah Vihear sugar plantation moves forward
Police in Preah Vihear province say they have uncovered more evidence of child labor on a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation and will send the case to court if further investigation confirms their preliminary findings. A former employee of the Lan Feng plantation filed a complaint last month ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-labor-probe-on-preah-vihear-sugar-plantation-moves-forward-55643/
Ministry, ACU continue campaign for clean high school exam
The Education Ministry’s crusade to clean up the national high school exam continued Wednesday, with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) releasing a statement inviting concerned parties to monitor exams in August and warning that cheats would be failed and effectively banned from sitting again for two ...
Kuch Naren and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-acu-continue-campaign-for-clean-high-school-exam-55667/