Social development
Education and training
A failure to communicate
At the beginning of the school year, Mony Vutha was handed a new, mandatory addition to the grade four curriculum that neither he nor any of his colleagues were trained to teach: English. Vutha’s two years of English lessons more than a decade ago made him ...
Laignee Barron and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/failure-communicate
Total, NGO team up for road safety libraries
The literacy NGO Sipar is set to expand its fleet of mobile libraries and place a new focus on teaching the country’s youth about road safety as part of its partnership with global gas giant Total. A “Safety” library—the 10th in Sipar’s fleet—will join nine other ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/total-ngo-team-up-for-road-safety-libraries-60444/
Private schools to face tougher regulations
The Ministry of Education is drafting two sub-decrees on private educational institutions aimed at improving regulation of the nation’s vast body of private schools. The sub-decree on Organization and Management of Private Schools and sub-decree on Categorization of Private Schools have been sent to a range ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/private-schools-to-face-tougher-regulations-60153/
Cambodia, Iran look to enhance bilateral ties, cooperation
Cambodia and Iran are looking for possibilities to strengthen and expand bilateral ties and cooperation for the mutual benefits of the two countries and peoples. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong held a talk on Monday with the Hanoi-based Iranian Ambassador to Cambodia ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=221964
Classroom talk remains barrier
Sgnoun Vita can’t communicate with most of her kindergarten students. She teaches them colours and numbers, but can’t understand their questions or chatter. Most of Vita’s students at the Kater Primary School in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district speak Jarai, one of Cambodia’s 24 ethnic minority languages. A ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/classroom-talk-remains-barrier
South Korea and Japan provide aid
The Japanese and South Korean governments yesterday announced millions of dollars in aid to Cambodia for a scholarship program and a number of rural development projects. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong and Japanese Ambassador Kumamaru Yuji signed for a $2.85 million grant yesterday to fund ...
Vong Sokheng and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/south-korea-and-japan-provide-aid
Institute feeling crowded
Construction work at the site of Phnom Penh’s Buddhist Institute by Hong Kong-listed casino operator NagaCorp has caused concern among staff that the large development is driving away students. In recent days, a wall separating the institute from Hun Sen Park in Chamkarmon district’s Tonle Bassac ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/institute-feeling-crowded
To stop leaks, exam papers to be given to only one teacher
Copies of grade 12 examination papers will only be provided to a single teacher for each subject this year in order to identify the source of leaks, said Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron during a speech on Saturday. Mr. Naron, speaking at the American University of ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/to-stop-leaks-exam-papers-to-be-given-to-only-one-teacher-59555/
Pupils blamed for illegal books
Education officials yesterday shifted the onus of pirated and illegally sold state textbooks onto students, faulting the teenage pupils for fuelling demand. “If there are no buyers, there will be no sellers,” Lim Sotharith, director of the Education Ministry’s textbook department, said during a forum on ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pupils-blamed-illegal-books
Chinese universities jointly hold education exhibition in Cambodian capital
Twenty-two Chinese higher education institutions jointly held a one-day education exhibition here on Thursday with an aim to boost education cooperation between China and Cambodia and to attract more Cambodian students to study in China. The 2nd edition of China Higher Education Exhibition is held at ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=219804
Teachers who claimed graft told to keep quiet
Teachers in Oddar Meanchey province, who last week accused district education officials of stealing their salaries, were on Monday threatened with expulsion for talking to the media, a teachers union said. The Anlong Veng district education director summoned about 15 teachers and school officials to the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-who-claimed-graft-told-to-keep-quiet-59124/
Overtime at school goes unpaid
Six months after the government announced that bank accounts for all civil servants would put an end to late salaries and rampant graft, secondary school teachers in Prey Veng say they are owed long overdue payments. In addition to their regular salary, which they already received, ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/overtime-school-goes-unpaid
Interior Ministry seeks new recruits
The Interior Ministry is seeking 478 students to work in prisons and offices across the country, according to an announcement posted online Monday. The ministry’s message, posted to the website of the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, calls for 80 candidates to work as prison ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-seeks-new-recruits-58745/
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