Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Government Must Increase Teachers’ Salary

Monday, April 21, 2008
Editorial by Khmerization
Originally posted at http://khmerization.blogspot.com
“The teachers are the vanguards of Cambodia’s progress and prosperity. Good salary attracts good and bright students to enter the field of teaching. This will lead to quality education which would then lead to producing quality graduates to serve Cambodia.”
The skyrocketing of the price of goods and the soaring price of fuel have put a strain on many battlers, who are striving to make ends meet in the face of low wages, high costs of living and limited opportunity. The demands by the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association for their pay increases on par with the inflation index is not unreasonable and the government must not ignore their demands (read about the teachers' demands here).

The teachers are the educators of our future generations and the next leaders of Cambodia. It is imperative that the government realise about their importance and look after them well so that they can put 100% commitment to groom our next generations of leaders. By saying this, I appeal to the government to meet their demands and increase their salary.

The teachers are the vanguards of Cambodia’s progress and prosperity. Good salary attracts good and bright students to enter the field of teaching. This will lead to quality education which would then lead to producing quality graduates to serve Cambodia.

During the Sangkum Reastr Niyum and, to a certain extent, the Khmer Republic regime, teachers were held in high regard and their salaries were the best among the public servants. They were the most incorrupt people in the land. Teaching, then, was the most respectable profession and everywhere they went people respected them.

Today’s teachers are among the most hated people in the land, not because they are bad by nature, but they are corrupt by circumstances and by faults of government. While prices of commodities have risen to record high, the government is still refusing their repeated demands for pay increases. With their meagre salary, coupled with skyrocketing prices of commodities, the temptation to commit corruption are too hard to resist. As a result, many teachers have immorally pressurised their students to attend their outside of school hour classes and charge them extortionate amount for private lessons.

The government has repeatedly refused the teachers’ demands for pay-rises, using the pretext that the government simply does not have the money to fund their pay increases. This is simply not true. The money to fund the teachers’ pay-rises can be found by eliminating corruption. All lost incomes through corruption from illegal logging, land concessions, Angkor Wat ticketing concessions, the sales of state properties, which the World Bank has estimated to have cost Cambodia’s national budget to the tune of US$500 million per year, would be more than enough to fund the pay increases, if they are collected and deposited in the state treasury, instead of going to the pockets of the corrupt officials.

The national budget can be saved further with the streamlining of government’s unnecessary appointments. The government can further save millions of dollars if the thousands of Hun Sen’s shadowy advisors are struck off the government’s payrolls.

In the past three governments post-UNTAC, the governments have never reduced governments’ appointments in order to save money. Instead, the governments have consistently made many unnecessary appointments to further strengthen their grips on power at the expense of the hapless and lowly paid public servants, such as the teachers. This is an act of corruptly squandering national budget for one’s own political interests.

One would hope that the next government would cut the inflated and unnecessary appointments so that money can be saved to fund the pay-rises for low-ranking public servants such as the teachers, the police and the army. I hope.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

You got it upside down Gorilla Fucker. No one on this planet will give raise to corrupted teacher who extorted money from poor students.

Anonymous said...

You are right on the butt.They are so damned corrupted.

Khmer Young said...

Any speech, action and laws that benefit the stability of power and wealth of Hun Sen and his cronies will be easily uttered, permeated, and amended.

Cambodia has been experiencing not only inflation of the goods and commodities, but the most dangerous inflation is the large amount of high ranking positions.

Those high ranking officers don't only waste the national budget, but distort and extort the happiness and well beings of Cambodian peoples, importantly the public servants such as teachers and lower ranking officers have significantly become the victims.

Current leadership of Cambodia government compares like the tribal or feudal political system of the last 10 centuries in our world civilization.

KY

Anonymous said...

The teachers, police, the army and other public servants become corrupted because their wages are so low that they cannot survive. Also corruption existed because the leaders/Hun Sen tolerated corruption or he himself is very corrupt. Even you, 1:52Pm, admitted that there is corruption under this present regime of Hun Sen. The teachers in the old regime were not corrupt because their salary can feed the whole family well and have enough to save.
I wonder whether this debater, 1:52PM, is educated under the corrupt Hun Sen's system, that's why the moment he open his foul mouth, the first words he can find to utter, like his uneducated leader Hun Sen, are swearing words. Like leader, like follower. Like father like son. Their intellect is so limited that they cannot find other decent language to describe things and the first words uttered out of their foul mouths are swearing words. Limited intellect? Poor souls.

Anonymous said...

M.Rong Chhun, you know well that the government has no money.
The cash desks of the state are empty every month.
The state is almost bankrupt.

With what you want that the government increases your salaries? By making print bank notes? It is going to make still increase the inflation.
think about it little. You are a professor or not?
It is not serious from a professor like you M. Rong Chhun.

Anonymous said...

My beloved Khmers!

Do you guys not mentally realize that CPP's system is intentionally teaching every single Khmer learn how to be a corruptor in order to survive?

Anonymous said...

It's that easy, ha? Just eliminate corruption and you have all the money you need for pay raises. This must be a child writing those articles. Because only children can be so naive.

Anonymous said...

Cambodia economic data keys of 2007.

Import: 4,45 billions $,
Export: 3,38 billions $,

Foreign debts: 3,66 billions $

National Budget:
receipts: 731 millions $
spending and expenses: 932 millions $ (700 million included international assistances).

With this situation of bankruptcy, Where we find the money to increase all salaries Mr. Rong Chhung ?

Anonymous said...

M. Rong Chhung your demand of pay rise in the approach of the elections is simply political and partisan.

Anonymous said...

My beloved friend!

I think therefore I am undoubtedly believing that is a simply natural attitude of the children can be so naive. On the other hand, genuinely insane, if an adult, especially an educated one as you, is arrognantly naive, that's the reason why the Khmeritude of submission is the dizziness of freedom. I desperately don't need to have an uncountable Ph.Ds as Dey Dek Cho Samdech Hun SenVarman in order to simply figure out where are the billions US dollar from the donor countries gone and the people are still miserably suffocating poor?

Frogive me that I am openly illiterat, but did you forget that human beings prefer peace, and even death, to freedom fo choice in the knowledge of good and evil?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Rong Chhung be reasonable and ask what is possible.

You are a professor in more.

Pay attention on what you ask. Because the pupils can ask you questions about it.

Anonymous said...

Rong Chun has appealed for salary increase long long time ago.

But normally CPP and their cronies will accuse all movements that are contradict to the interests of CPP and their cronies as politically motivated.

Anonymous said...

don't you mother fucker know that Ah hun xen's family and friend sold land for millions and millions where the fuck is the tax? and fucking alot new car and other luxury that have 100% tax, where the fucking money?

Ah Kwack can use the luxury tax to pay the increase if he not fucking kwack and let Bonary stuf it inside somewhere!

Anonymous said...

Vote for SRP let Some rainsy show Hun Sen how to find and save money to give pay increase to low level public servances!

Anonymous said...

Do not worry the next leader are produce from Hanoi! ah You have alot of toilet paper! If you need the fucking leaders!!!

Anonymous said...

please keep bringing it to the attention of the gov't. it doesn't hurt to ask for increase. if they don't ask, they will get no increase, so please keep demanding and negiating until reach some kind of compromise for teachers. god bless.

Anonymous said...

cambodia, this is only a small investment for the future of cambodia. please be fair to teachers and other gov't workers as well. thank you.

Anonymous said...

Right 3:21 AM, keep asking. the textile facotry workers get $6 pay increase because they keep asking. The teachers' pays are very small, about more or less $50 per month, so the increase is minimal compared to Hun Sen's corrupt spending spree. The police, army, teachers need a decent living.