Education and training
Primary and secondary education
ACU tackles exam cheats
Cheating on national grade nine and 12 exams – which has been rampant in the past – just got harder. The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) announced yesterday that it will enlist the services of independent NGOs, civil society groups and private companies to monitor the more than ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/acu-tackles-exam-cheats
Forums to help guide learning
Beginning this year, all public schools will be required to conduct regularly scheduled forums designed to function as a sounding board between teachers, parents and students, officials said yesterday. The meetings will encourage dialogue about what is and isn’t working in Cambodian schools, Education Minister Hang ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forums-help-guide-learning
Teachers Told to Expel Corruption From Classrooms
Just weeks after the country’s only independent teachers’ association staged a strike for higher wages, Phnom Penh’s education chief told teachers this week that they must stop taking bribes to comply with the government’s promised reform agenda. Speaking to about 500 educators, mainly school directors, from ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-told-to-expel-corruption-from-classrooms-51158/
Test changes target cheats
In an attempt to crack down on rampant cheating on nationwide testing, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) has announced that primary and high school teachers will begin individually authoring and writing final exams on the white board for the 2014 academic term, ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/test-changes-target-cheats
Shaping the leaders of tomorrow
In a lush, gated compound 12 kilometres south of central Phnom Penh, the young minds that will one day lead Cambodia are being shaped – or at least that’s what one philanthropic foundation, which is investing millions of dollars in a unique, long-term project, hopes. “When ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/shaping-leaders-tomorrow
Poor Education Could Cripple Business Growth
Low-quality education is jeopardizing business growth in Cambodia, and local graduates will not be employable in skilled jobs if the government does not quickly implement educational reforms, business executives warned Thursday at the Cambodian Market Intel 2013 seminar in Phnom Penh. During an hourlong panel discussion ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-listed-as-nsa-collection-point-48188/
New Picture Book for Kids Published in Khmer
Cambodia Airports and the NGO Sipar, an organization that supports literacy and the publishing sector in Cambodia, jointly released a Khmer- and English-language book for toddlers about transportation Wednesday morning. “The Picture Book on Vehicles” is part of Sipar’s first collection of books for toddlers written ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-picture-book-for-kids-published-in-khmer-47537/
Nation’s youngest lack teachers
Fewer and fewer primary schoolteachers are willing to cope with poor pay and the worst student-to-teacher ratio outside of Africa, government data shows. Annual reports released by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport reveal that despite fervent recruitment efforts, every year since 2005 – when ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nation%E2%80%99s-youngest-lack-teachers
Ethnic minorities to receive bilingual education: gov’t
The government affirmed its commitment to bilingual education for ethnic minority children in Cambodia’s northern provinces at a UNESCO conference in Bangkok last week. Speaking at the fourth International Conference on Language and Education: Multilingual Education for all in Asia and the Pacific, Ton Sa Im, ...
Emily Wight
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/lifestyle/ethnic-minorities-receive-bilingual-education-gov%E2%80%99t
UK Pedophile Came to Cambodia to Teach in Schools
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged convicted British pedophile Richard Fruin, 36, with sexually abusing two brothers, aged 8 and 11, at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh, court officials said. While the court has yet to decide Fruin’s fate, his case—and many similar ...
Kuch Naren and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-pedophile-came-to-cambodia-to-teach-in-schools-46353/
Public supplies put to private use, union says
An Oddar Meanchey director of education is denying a complaint filed to the Ministry of Education alleging he took school supplies from a public school for use in a private school and pocketed salaries of teachers who no longer worked there. In a letter dated Monday, ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/public-supplies-put-private-use-union-says
Officials demanded bribes, teacher say
A teacher at Tea Chamrath High School in Pursat town has accused school director Bou Sovannarith and deputy director Chhub Buntha of forcing students to pay bribes in the form of, among other things, enrolment fees for matriculation into the 2013-2014 academic year. Phat Malin, the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-demanded-bribes-teacher-says
Unicef Says Girls’ Access to Education Limited
Despite progress having been made in recent years to improve girls’ access to education, there is still a gender-based inequality, particularly in rural areas, children’s rights experts said on the International Day of the Girl Child on Friday. “At the moment there is still a slight ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unicef-says-girls-access-to-education-limited-44937/
U.S. pledges 20 mln USD to WFP for school feeding in Cambodia
The United States has pledged 20 million U.S. dollars over the next three years to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to carry out school feeding program in Cambodia, said a WFP press release on Tuesday. The statement said the donation, made by the U.S. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-10/08/c_132780183.htm
Floods Claim 39 Lives; Crops, Hundreds of Schools Damaged
The death toll from flooding across the country has risen to 39, while the Mekong River remains above emergency levels in Prey Veng and Kandal provinces, a government official said on Friday. Keo Vy, cabinet chief for the government’s National Committee for Disaster Management, said that ...
Khy Sovuthy and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/floods-claim-39-lives-crops-hundreds-of-schools-damaged-44434/
Flooding closes 513 schools
Thousands of students were unable to attend classes yesterday after returning from holiday, as more than 500 schools remained closed due to flooding that has claimed 50 lives so far this year. According to a report released by the National Committee for Disaster Management, 513 schools ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/flooding-closes-513-schools
Shuttered schools, factories
With only about 10 per cent of its 1,000-person workforce at their stations by 8am yesterday, management at Hoyear (Cambodia) Garment Ltd cut its losses and announced that the factory would close for the next two days. Thousands across the capital opted out of work ...
Sean Teehan, Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/shuttered-schools-factories
Grade 9 test pushed back amid protest
The Ministry of Education has suspended the grade 9 examinations this week without citing a reason. In a letter sent yesterday, parents and students are informed that examinations slated to take place today and Tuesday would instead take place on September 26 and 27. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grade-9-test-pushed-back-amid-protest
Bribes on rise for test takers
More than half a million dollars in bribes were paid to teachers during last month’s national exams by high school students in Phnom Penh alone, the authors of a new study have found. The study, conducted by the Youth Resource Development Program, found that the average ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bribes-rise-test-takers
Capacity building: New schools pop up in rural areas
Children in rural areas are reaping the benefits of the government having completed 306 of the 580 schools it began constructing last year, senior ministers said yesterday. ...
Road Built on School Land Draws Protest
The water company that sparked four days of protest in Prey Veng province last week has once again drawn criticism, this time from teachers in Kratie province, who say the firm is building a road across their school’s land. Forty-nine teachers at Preah Kossamak High School ...
Two More Set Schools Could Close
Eight SET international (SI) schools have closed nationwide over the past two months because of financial problems, and the remaining two schools in Phnom Penh and Kompong Chhnang provinces also appear poised to shut their doors soon, a Ministry of Education official said. The abrupt closings ...
Parents, Teachers Lose Out in Closing of International Schools
Two more Set International Schools (SIS) have closed due to financial troubles, leaving hundreds of primary school students looking for a place to study, parents and a teacher’s union official said yesterday. The closing of the two SIS schools – in Kompong Cham and Pursat provinces ...