School buildings ‘failing test’
Two years out from the 2015 Millennium Development Goals’ target of universal access to education, Cambodia remains plagued by school infrastructure shortages, with a scarcity of classrooms and decrepit facilities that threaten students’ safety, NGOs and teachers say. ...
At Slorkram Primary School in Battambang, teachers and students fear the roof may cave in at any moment. ...
Battambang isn’t the only province facing poor school conditions. The Ministry of Education Youth and Sport’s 2012-2013 Education Statistics and Indicators survey reveals that a fifth of all Cambodian public schools lack “good walls”, almost half of schools lack running water and nearly a third don’t have a toilet.
In Ratanakkiri, the province with the least-developed school infrastructure, 73 per cent of schools do not have any water.
A 2012 NGO Education Partnership student survey found that only 17 per cent of more than 2,200 respondents said their school had electricity. ...
However, the ministry’s survey shows that 1,377 new schools were built for the 2012-2013 school year, a development educators say is a mixed blessing that may come at the expense of school renovations. ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/school-buildings-%E2%80%98failing-test%E2%80%99
