Cambodian students are seen at the windows of a university in Phnom PenhPHNOM PENH (AFP) — She has two years to go until graduation, but already Cambodian student Chhum Savorn is filled with a sense of dread.
The 21-year-old decided to major in finance, hoping she would acquire skills to help develop her country, which is one of the poorest in the world.
Instead, she thinks her education is nearly worthless -- classes are mostly packed with indifferent, cheating students and led by under-qualified professors.
"The low quality of my studies means that I can't help the country, and I'll even have a hard time getting a job that pays enough to help my family," she says.
A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.
As a result only one in ten recent graduates are finding work, a worrying figure in a country trying to rebuild after decades of civil war.
Cambodia's schools were obliterated under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s when the regime killed nearly two million people -- including most of the country's intellectuals -- as it emptied cities in its bid to forge a Communist utopia.
But as the country rebuilds and the economy grows, it is inundated with institutions peddling low-quality education.
In 2000, there were ten post-secondary institutions in Cambodia. Now there are 70 private and state-run universities.
Most programs offered by those institutions are dismal, says Mak Ngoy, deputy director general of higher education at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
"We are not yet satisfied with the current quality of our education," Mak Ngoy says.
"I think increasing the number of higher education institutions is a positive sign, but we are struggling with the hard task of strengthening quality," he adds.
Qualified university professors complain that many students rarely do their work and cheating is rampant.
A number of students are content to pay for a degree and do not realise the benefit of a good education, says Lav Chhiv Eav, rector of Royal University of Phnom Penh, the oldest and largest state-owned college.
"Some students are scared of studying hard and think what they need is any degree, not quality. The final result will be joblessness," he says.
Most of Cambodia's universities are small-scale institutions with limited of capital, poor facilities and little discipline.
So far, the education ministry has ordered the closing of four institutions that called themselves universities, but gave little education to students.
Five years ago there was an attempt to fix Cambodia's higher education institutions, with the formation of a national university accreditation committee.
The committee was formed to force institutions to adhere to strict education requirements, but the World Bank pulled its funding for the scheme when it became clear the body would not be independent from government control.
With little official oversight, the quality of many Cambodian universities has worsened, while the number of Cambodians seeking a diploma has shot up.
More than 135,000 Cambodians are currently enrolled in some form of higher education, says the education ministry, compared to just 25,000 eight years ago.
But only one in 10 recent university graduates have found work, according to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, as the country remains mired in poverty despite the double-digit economic growth.
Ma Sopheap, officer at the Asian Development Bank, says Cambodia will have trouble luring foreign investment if it does not start producing more qualified graduates.
"If the low quality of higher education continues, it will affect Cambodia's economic development," he says. "Then there is no way to reduce poverty."
The 21-year-old decided to major in finance, hoping she would acquire skills to help develop her country, which is one of the poorest in the world.
Instead, she thinks her education is nearly worthless -- classes are mostly packed with indifferent, cheating students and led by under-qualified professors.
"The low quality of my studies means that I can't help the country, and I'll even have a hard time getting a job that pays enough to help my family," she says.
A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.
As a result only one in ten recent graduates are finding work, a worrying figure in a country trying to rebuild after decades of civil war.
Cambodia's schools were obliterated under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s when the regime killed nearly two million people -- including most of the country's intellectuals -- as it emptied cities in its bid to forge a Communist utopia.
But as the country rebuilds and the economy grows, it is inundated with institutions peddling low-quality education.
In 2000, there were ten post-secondary institutions in Cambodia. Now there are 70 private and state-run universities.
Most programs offered by those institutions are dismal, says Mak Ngoy, deputy director general of higher education at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
"We are not yet satisfied with the current quality of our education," Mak Ngoy says.
"I think increasing the number of higher education institutions is a positive sign, but we are struggling with the hard task of strengthening quality," he adds.
Qualified university professors complain that many students rarely do their work and cheating is rampant.
A number of students are content to pay for a degree and do not realise the benefit of a good education, says Lav Chhiv Eav, rector of Royal University of Phnom Penh, the oldest and largest state-owned college.
"Some students are scared of studying hard and think what they need is any degree, not quality. The final result will be joblessness," he says.
Most of Cambodia's universities are small-scale institutions with limited of capital, poor facilities and little discipline.
So far, the education ministry has ordered the closing of four institutions that called themselves universities, but gave little education to students.
Five years ago there was an attempt to fix Cambodia's higher education institutions, with the formation of a national university accreditation committee.
The committee was formed to force institutions to adhere to strict education requirements, but the World Bank pulled its funding for the scheme when it became clear the body would not be independent from government control.
With little official oversight, the quality of many Cambodian universities has worsened, while the number of Cambodians seeking a diploma has shot up.
More than 135,000 Cambodians are currently enrolled in some form of higher education, says the education ministry, compared to just 25,000 eight years ago.
But only one in 10 recent university graduates have found work, according to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, as the country remains mired in poverty despite the double-digit economic growth.
Ma Sopheap, officer at the Asian Development Bank, says Cambodia will have trouble luring foreign investment if it does not start producing more qualified graduates.
"If the low quality of higher education continues, it will affect Cambodia's economic development," he says. "Then there is no way to reduce poverty."
15 comments:
Cambodian College degree are as valuable as toilet paper. Just look at your leaders with all the Ph.d.
Anybody graduating from a Cambodian University with a degree might as well be working in the rice field.
Not until there is an establishment of ethic, morals and value when Cambodian can be considered accrediated place to study.
Leaders are born. Not made, or bought. example.
20 century leaders: Ghandi,Mandela, Martin Luther king Jr. Abraham Lincoln.
And of course, Cambodia has its Hun Se.. Need I say more?
Prior to the KR, Cambodia was the place to send your children to study in the university by surrounding countries. The rebuilding of the university system is and has been underway. Contrary to the article's inference, there are many fine universities where classes are taught by well qualified professors both Khmer and foreign.
Almost all higher education institutions in Cambodia are money-making ventures that have been set up to exploit the illusion among students and their parents that degrees will maximize their chances of getting jobs.
Very few college graduates get graduate jobs. Most keep on studying or have no choice but to accept menial or odd jobs.
Standards are extremely low, most faculty members unqualified and/or too busy making money by teaching 20-30 hours per week at several institutions at $5-10/ hour.
Notwithstanding the extremely low academic standards, the admission standards are very low or non-existent and can be bought even in supposedly the most selective institutions.
Cheating is rampant. Faculty are threatened by students if they attempt to maintain a semblance of academic rigor. Most graduates do not have the minimum analytical, communication or interpersonal skills to be employable.
The Higher Education Accreditation Commission is directly controlled by Sok An and is rife with corruption in that anybody with money can start and operate a university, so long as the appropriate bribes are paid at the outset and annually, as part of the accreditation process.
All the students are subject to CPP propaganda by university authorities during the year and especially during election years.
The whole education system all the way from kindergarten to university is one whole money-making industry that is designed to make money for all the entrepreneurs.
All parents will go to any length to take their children out of the bankrupt public education system and put them through these private schools that have grown like mushrooms to turn their owners into almost instant millionaires.
Teachers is part of the SRP corrupted clan. They extort money from poor students and denied some of them their right to education. The entire clan is pure evil from hell.
question should be: who is doing this to cambodia? is it the foreigners or the local faculty? is it foreingers taking advantage of education-hunger khmer people or something else? that said, of course, education is expensive everywhere on the planet as well. just look in the western countries like in the USA and EU or Japan, etc..., people pay a lot for their education. is this a new phenomenon that finally reached cambodia as well or is it something else? don't forget, it is called competition. and welcome to the real, global world, cambodia. i think cambodia univesity system is perhaps trying to adopt the standard of education from the western world, that is why average cambodian students can't afford to pay for their education. however, if it the teaching system that is bad, then who is it to blame? faculty qualification should be investigated. and if this news is true, where ought to be a strict professional ethics training for faculty and educators alike. and also take a few other scenerio into consideration as well like cambodia's population is so different when compared to the 1950s and 1960s during the heydays of the golden era of khmer renaissance. please keep this in mind when evaluating the situation. cambodia is not the same anymore, in most cases. that can be a glass half-full or a glass half-empty paradigm, depends on the individual doing the evalution, their background, their financial wealth, their perspective, their philosophy and level of education, etc, etc...god bless cambodia.
They have to get qualified teachers, there are plenty of Cambodian abroad that most capable to teach the young Khmer in IT, finance, engineering etc. Also you need to reform the education more, fire all corrupted and incompetent teachers.
This problem can be solved, it's not rocket science.
Whatsoever that roots are or whosoever did, we all know very clear.
I feel very pity on my young generation who repeatedly poisoned by a handful traitors/foreigner's puppet.
However I strongly recommend all Khmer student inside the country, to try your best within our own means. I think you, brothers are still however a lot better than my time because you can reach out the world much widely either via internet, media, you can talk to others freely. Whereas during my time, listening to VOA, learning other languages besides Youn and Russian is forbidden and whoever found speaking French/English will be jailed.
Try your best and Buddha will bless us all.
Cambodia should have been advised to adopt a two-track educational system: (1) the acadenic track for students who are qualified to pursue tertiary education (university); and (2)the vocational, technical and professional track for older pupils who are not qualified for secondary education (junior high school)(level 1), for junior high school students who fail to graduate (level 2), for senior high school students who fail to graduate (level 3). and for those who fail in their university entrance examination (level 4).
Furthermore, tertiary education (university)should be reserved for some 30 to 40 per cent of senior high school graduates only. However, high school graduates who have previously failed have the right to resit university exams to pursue their tertiary education.
I proposed this two-track system to Prime Minister Hun Sen in person when we met at a function some ten years ago, before the 1998 election. But he said the vocational, technical and professional track would be "too costly".
I strongly believe that this two-track system, if honestly opterated, would ensure that every Cambodian is well equiped to have a trade to earn a living - and forget about helping to rebuild or help his or her country as he or she has been misled to believe.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
The quality of education at university level is a problem. As one of lecturers, I feel students fail to do their assignment properly because of a bad culture of not reading books and research (relying on basically lectures). When they do their assignment, they copy and paste from internet. Many reasons: (1) university system itself (the role of AAC to accredit ate the universities needs to be strengthened), (2) the universities care about their competitiveness in the market regardless of the qualities given their little incentives and pay to lecturers to do more serious research and teaching for effective lessons, (3) some lecturers are incompetent coz of their limited skills and networks with university's deans, etc. Given the system and situation, some lecturers have no incentive to work hard alone (what is for if others lecturers give A or B to those cheating students, and only you alone give F?
Monyrath
Within the fist month of the shool year, the Ministery of Education and the Ministry of Information should cooperate to launch a reading campaign for one week across the country to develop reading habit.
In that week all educational institutions should get students to read a short story or a newspaper article for 15 minutes before starting their classes.
All TV channels should insert a short reading time (5 minutes) to review a book or to read a short story.
All radio stations do like wise. The printed press should also do book review in their columns.
During the same week, before making their speachhes, the country's leaders should urge their fellow countrymen to read. Prime Minister Hun Sen should get somebody to read his poems before making his own speeches.
Fathers and mothers should switch off their TV in the evening and read books for their children or get their children to read books for them. Just 30 minutes every day overthat week.
The Ministry of Information should get somebody who has fast reading skill to share this skill with TV viewers or radio listeners.
University techers should urge their students to read at least a newspaper or a magazine from cover to cover overe that week.
Besides, the Ministery of Ecudation and the Ministry of Culture should get bookshops to display Khmer books in their windows to attract readers (buyers). In the bookshops in Phnom Penh I have visited, Khmer books are displayed at the back of the shop while Englsih books are at the front. One must make some efforts to find those Khmer books.
The same ministries should develop a long-term plan to open public libraries to lend books to the public. In the meantime, the Ministry of Religious affairs should get monasteries to open libraries and allocate money from different fetes to purchase of books for those libraries. They should also send monks for librarianship training. Cambodia could have some 5000 monastery libraries just overnight - at zero cost to the public and well in conformity with the Buddha's teaching to combat ignorance or avijja.
There are much more Khmer books in print now than ever before.
The French say "l'appetit vient en mangeant" (Appetite comes with eating). Reading habit will come with reading.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Great idea, 9:53 and 9:30, but before your ideas can work, we must remove all of the corrupted teachers from the institution. We need to expose everyone of them to the public, and let them face the consequence.
Dr. Lao Mong Hay,
Your recommendation about a binary system makes perfect sense. That's the reason why 18-month IT graduates of the tuition-free CIST (that selects only the best high-school grads from the provinces)have a 100% placement record. These students study almost 30 hours per week, receive intensive training in IT and English and undertake internships. In contrast, most of the four-year alumni of the 70 universities who get their bachelor's degrees every year do not have the skills employers require and yet have an inflated view of their capabilities.
Well well, though the trees are chopped off but the roots are still there!
Hey , Kids . Blame your parents, they voted for a continuation of the present government and their system.
Every thing turned to garbage in Cambodia.
No need high education to get high rang position
as long as have family working in high rank position.
Money can buy any high rank positions.
There are many difference laws in Cambodia, but for only
poor people to follow.
It is okay for the government and the wealthy
not follow the law.
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