Written by Siti Hajar Auliannisa

Introduction

Cambodia’s education system has undergone a remarkable transformation thanks to considerable efforts by the Cambodian government and concerned stakeholders. In general education, there has been improvement across the sub-sector. For example, there have been efforts to improve the quality of teachers and school principals as well as educational infrastructure. In 2014, a major reform to the Grade 12 national examination was introduced to combat corruption and cheating during exams (Bredenberg, 2022). In 2016, another reform to general education was undertaken; that is, the introduction of a school improvement initiative known as the New Generation Schools. This important initiative aims to create a new model of public schools in Cambodia to improve the quality of general education (Bredenberg, 2022).

Cambodia’s education system: A brief historical account

According to McNamara and Hayden (2022), Cambodia has a tragic past. After a brief period of socioeconomic development following its independence from France in 1953, Cambodia plunged into political instability in the early 1970s, after which the country experienced one of the world’s worst tragedies in the 20th century, the Khmer Rouge. After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) that killed one-quarter of the Cambodian population, Cambodia had to start from scratch to rebuild itself, including its education system (McNamara & Hayden, 2022).

During the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s education system was completely dismantled. Educational infrastructure was destroyed or used for non-educational purposes, while teachers and other educated Cambodians were targeted for execution (Ayres, 2000). It was estimated that 75% of the teaching force died during the Khmer Rouge regime (Clayton, 1998). It was only in the early 1990s that Cambodia started to witness significant social and national development. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, there have been a lot of improvements, particularly in quantitative aspects, in Cambodia’s education system. One of the significant achievements is the surge in student enrollment.

Cambodia’s education system: Current structure

Cambodia’s current education system is divided into four major streams: (a) pre-primary education or early childhood education, (b) general education, (c) technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and (d) higher education (Tao & Kao, 2023). Pre-primary education caters to children aged three to five and is provided at three distinct types of preschools: public, private, and community-based (Om, 2022). Following that, general education follows the 6+3+3 structure, comprising six years of primary education (Grades 1-6), three years of lower secondary education (Grades 7-9), and another three years of upper secondary education (Grades 10-12). A combination of primary and lower secondary education (Grades 1-9) constitutes the country’s compulsory basic education (UNESCO, 2008).

After finishing lower secondary education, students can either continue to regular upper secondary education or enroll in secondary-level TVET programs to qualify for TVET certificate types C1, C2, and C3 (Tao & Kao, 2023). Holders of TVET certificate type C3 can pursue advanced TVET programs: two years for a TVET diploma and four years for a bachelor’s degree in TVET-specific disciplines.

According to MoEYS (2023), over the past decade (2013-2022), there has been significant progress in terms of educational infrastructure development, student enrollment, and education access. For instance, the number of kindergarten and general education schools has increased from 14,852 in the 2013-2014 academic year to 18,830 in the 2022-2023 academic year. The number of HEIs has also increased from 110 in the 2013-2014 academic year to 132 in the 2021-2022 academic year. Likewise, the number of education staff has increased from 112,704 in 2013 to 125,597 in 2022.

Early Childhood Education

Early childhood education (ECE), which includes both early childhood care and preschool education, provides children with an essential foundation for success in life. About one-third of all Cambodians are below 15 years of age. In 2019, there were almost 1 million 3- to 5-year-olds (6.2% of the national population) in Cambodia.  Cambodia continues, however, to struggle with achieving the quantity and quality of ECE provision required to meet national needs. The quality of ECE programs in Cambodia relies heavily on having personnel with well-developed skills and knowledge. The problem is especially acute for community-based multilingual preschools, where a severe teacher shortage has significantly impaired expansion. It is also difficult to retain high-performing personnel because employment in the sector is not well-remunerated and lacks social status.

To date, ECE programs lack coherence and have not been systematically developed and implemented. Their implementation is subject to variations in socioeconomic conditions and the availability of resources across the country. Different models of ECE provision exist between public and private preschools and between community-based and home-based models. Programs delivered also vary according to particular geographic circumstances and social needs. In general, there is a lack of coherence in how different government levels participate in the management of preschools.

Quality of Educations

To measure student learning progress against the national curriculum, MoEYS conducts national assessments for grades 3, 6, 8 and 11 on a cyclical basis. To gain insight about performance against other countries, it also participates in the PISA-D survey process; and it has joined the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) initiative.

The relatively low performance in the national assessments is in line with findings from PISA-D and SEA-PLM sources. According to human capital index data on the years of schooling and quality of learning for students aged 18 years, Cambodian 18-year-old students had received around 9.5 years of schooling, which was lower than for all other ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste. According to PISA-D, only 8% of Cambodian children achieved a minimum level of reading proficiency; and only 10% achieved a minimum level of proficiency in mathematics .

Infrastructure and Facilities

One of the primary challenges that the Cambodian education system faces is the lack of adequate infrastructure. Many schools, particularly in rural areas, are bereft of basic facilities such as clean drinking water, electricity, and sanitation facilities. This is akin to the situation in several developing countries where rural areas often lag behind urban centres in terms of infrastructure development. Moreover, many schools are constructed from makeshift materials, making them susceptible to damage from natural disasters. This lack of sturdy, well-equipped school buildings can significantly impact the quality of education provided.

Alongside the infrastructural issues, there is also a severe shortage of resources. Many schools lack essential teaching aids like textbooks, computers, and other learning materials. This is somewhat reminiscent of the early days of the British education system, where resources were scarce and often outdated. Furthermore, the student to teacher ratio in many Cambodian schools is alarmingly high, leading to overcrowded classrooms and a lack of individual attention for students.

Teachers Shortages

Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (2022) stated that key challenges facing Cambodia’s primary education included a shortage of teachers in remote areas and an oversupply of teachers in urban areas, a lack of teacher capacity building, limited quality of teachers, inadequate technological infrastructure, and a lack of materials for sanitation promotion. In secondary education, the challenges were the limited quality of teachers, inadequate opportunities for practical experiences, a lack of science teachers and facilities that support STEM subjects, and a lack of qualified staff or experts in English, ICT, health education, and architecture.

More than 60 percent of Cambodian children of lower-secondary-school age (12–14) were out of school in 2015, and 21 percent dropped out. Around 70 percent of sampled schools were short of classrooms. Teacher shortages were serious, and the majority of Cambodian teachers held low qualifications. As a result, student learning outcomes were low, with only eight percent of 15-year-old students reaching the minimum level of reading proficiency, as required by the Sustainable Development Goals, and just 10 percent achieving the minimum level of proficiency in mathematics, based on the PISA-D results in 2018.

Due to a lack of teachers and infrastructure, many public schools in Cambodia’s education system only operate for half-a-day morning or afternoon sessions. Many classes are overcrowded, and it is difficult for students to make substantial academic progress by attending just a few hours a day.

Socioeconomic Impact on Education

There has been a significant improvement in Cambodia’s student-to-teacher ratios over recent years, but classrooms remain relatively crowded. The situation is worse in rural areas, where classrooms are often overcrowded and school buildings are more dilapidated. There is also a large gap between rural and urban schools, estimated to be in the order of 10–15% points each year, in grade 6 completion rates. National assessment tests in 2016 indicated that while 62% of grade 6 students from urban areas were either proficient or advanced in Khmer language, only 35% of students from rural areas met this standard.

Students from better-off households were much more likely to have outperformed students from less well-off home backgrounds. As shown in Fig. 3.10, 60.6% of grade 6 students from the top quintile of family socioeconomic status were considered proficient or advanced in Khmer language, compared with only 24.4% from the bottom quintile of family socioeconomic status.

The gap was even more pronounced in mathematics. More than one-half (55.3%) of students from the top quintile for family socioeconomic status were proficient or advanced in mathematics, compared with less than one-quarter (23.1%) from the bottom quintile; and while 39.4% from the top quintile were below a basic level of proficiency in mathematics, the proportion for the lowest family socioeconomic status quintile was 73.1%.

Barriers between Public and Private School

Attendance at a public or private primary school was also strongly associated with different performance levels in the grade 6 Khmer language and mathematics tests. In the mathematics test, 67.4% of private school students obtained correct answers, whereas only 48.4% of public school students did so. In the Khmer language test, 52.1% of public school students achieved a satisfactory outcome, compared with 72.1% of private school students.

PISA-D survey results confirm the pattern. Fifteen-year-olds from private schools consistently outperformed their peers from public schools across the three areas of reading, mathematics and science. The performance difference was estimated to be equivalent to more than 2 years of schooling, meaning that, on average, the abilities of grade 6 students in public schools could just match the abilities of grade 4 students in private schools. However, private school education’s advantage was largely reduced after adjustment was made for family socioeconomic status. Students from better-off households were more highly represented at private than public schools

Conclusion

Cambodia’s education system has made significant strides since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, but it still faces many challenges. These include teacher shortages, inadequate infrastructure, quality disparities between public and private schools, and significant socioeconomic inequalities. The government’s ongoing efforts to reform and improve education, including the New Generation Schools initiative and the introduction of national assessments, are steps in the right direction. However, addressing the fundamental challenges of teacher quality, infrastructure, and socioeconomic inequality will require sustained commitment and resources from both the government and international stakeholders.

References

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