Craig Guthrie
The Mekong Times
Since the end of the Khmer Rouge era, Cambodia’s education sector has made great strides, but disappointing figures highlight the school system’s poor overall condition, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a recent report.
In the report, Education and Skills: Strategies for Accelerated Development, released June 17, the ADB found that Cambodia’s under-funded schools are the most overcrowded in Asia, with drop-out and school year repetition rates well above regional averages.
Cambodia ranks 103rd on the bank’s Education For All Development Index (EDI), which assesses the progress of 120 developing nations towards achieving basic education for all children and adults by 2015, a ranking nine places below Myanmar and 24 below Vietnam.
The nation “has not come close to achieving universal primary education,” and is at risk of not meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals for education by 2015, adds the ADB report.
While Cambodia scores well in primary enrollment at 92 percent, it is let down by a disappointing level of adult literacy (74 percent) and a higher than average gender disparity, which sees male attendance in schools higher by as much as 20 percent in remote and minority areas.
Top among the list of other disturbing issues in the Cambodian education sector are a high-level of school dropouts, with only a “dismal” 64 percent completing primary schooling, and over 10 percent of students repeating years – one of only four Asian nations with such a high repetition level.
“Parents opt to discontinue schooling their children for several reasons,” said the ADB. “These include poverty, distance from school, the need for household or agricultural help from older children, and a perception that schools are unsafe, hostile, or at best irrelevant to their needs,” said the report.
Another factor in dropout rates could be Cambodia’s teacher to student ratio, which at 56:1 is listed as the highest in Asia, above nations such as Bangladesh (55) and Afghanistan (43).
“An erosion of teacher salaries in real terms, coupled with low teacher status and a growing number of civic duties for teachers, has made the profession less attractive,” said the ADB.
Only 1 percent of Cambodia’s Gross National Product is being spent on primary education, 3.7 percent less than the average for developing nations.
But the ADB does commend Cambodia as an excellent example of a post-conflict nation developing its higher education system, with university enrolments rising to over 47,800 last year compared to just 601 in 1980.
The ADB is taking a leading role in improving Cambodia’s education system by providing budgetary support for policy reform and project support to deal with funding gaps, adds the report.
“In Cambodia … the ADB is providing support … to help the government enhance education quality, improve sector planning and management, upgrade teachers, and expand access to secondary education,” stated the report.
In the report, Education and Skills: Strategies for Accelerated Development, released June 17, the ADB found that Cambodia’s under-funded schools are the most overcrowded in Asia, with drop-out and school year repetition rates well above regional averages.
Cambodia ranks 103rd on the bank’s Education For All Development Index (EDI), which assesses the progress of 120 developing nations towards achieving basic education for all children and adults by 2015, a ranking nine places below Myanmar and 24 below Vietnam.
The nation “has not come close to achieving universal primary education,” and is at risk of not meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals for education by 2015, adds the ADB report.
While Cambodia scores well in primary enrollment at 92 percent, it is let down by a disappointing level of adult literacy (74 percent) and a higher than average gender disparity, which sees male attendance in schools higher by as much as 20 percent in remote and minority areas.
Top among the list of other disturbing issues in the Cambodian education sector are a high-level of school dropouts, with only a “dismal” 64 percent completing primary schooling, and over 10 percent of students repeating years – one of only four Asian nations with such a high repetition level.
“Parents opt to discontinue schooling their children for several reasons,” said the ADB. “These include poverty, distance from school, the need for household or agricultural help from older children, and a perception that schools are unsafe, hostile, or at best irrelevant to their needs,” said the report.
Another factor in dropout rates could be Cambodia’s teacher to student ratio, which at 56:1 is listed as the highest in Asia, above nations such as Bangladesh (55) and Afghanistan (43).
“An erosion of teacher salaries in real terms, coupled with low teacher status and a growing number of civic duties for teachers, has made the profession less attractive,” said the ADB.
Only 1 percent of Cambodia’s Gross National Product is being spent on primary education, 3.7 percent less than the average for developing nations.
But the ADB does commend Cambodia as an excellent example of a post-conflict nation developing its higher education system, with university enrolments rising to over 47,800 last year compared to just 601 in 1980.
The ADB is taking a leading role in improving Cambodia’s education system by providing budgetary support for policy reform and project support to deal with funding gaps, adds the report.
“In Cambodia … the ADB is providing support … to help the government enhance education quality, improve sector planning and management, upgrade teachers, and expand access to secondary education,” stated the report.
