Finance Ministry Accused of Ignoring Education Sector

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday again publicly accused the Ministry of Finance of not injecting enough funds into the education sector in order to bring Cambodia in line with the rest of Southeast Asia. Speaking at the close of a two-day workshop to formulate the ministry’s Education Strategic Plan 2014-2018, Education Ministry Secretary of State Nath Bunroeun said the quality of Cambodian graduates—whose professional qualifications should be recognized across Asean come 2015—was directly related to the quality of teachers, who are often under-qualified and underpaid. ... The renewed call for more funding comes after Education Minister Im Sethy in January accused the Ministry of Economy and Finance of consistently failing to disburse sufficient funds to the education sector, forcing it to rely heavily on foreign aid to achieve reforms. ... According to official figures, the government allocated about $280 million to education for this year, roughly 9.1 percent of the $3.1 billion total budget. In 2012, funding for education was $245 million, or about 9.4 percent of the budget. In contrast, some $400 million has been apportioned to the defense and security sectors this year, which amounts to about 13 percent of all spending and a 17.3 percent increase over last year’s allocation, with $245 million going to the Defense Ministry alone. ... Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, said that minimum salaries for teachers rising from 200,000 riel (about $50) to 320,000 (about $80) on September 1 was a step forward and that negotiations for further increases were ongoing. ...

 Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/finance-ministry-accused-of-ignoring-education%E2%80%88sector-41040/