Parents Say Poor Education Aiding Illiteracy

Two young Cambodian boys play near their slum home on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. (Photo: AP)

Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“We illiterate, it’s like we have blind eyes, and we don’t make any progress like the literates.”

Van La is a rice farmer in Kampong Speu province’s Udong district. Like many Cambodians, she is illiterate. And while she hopes her children will not suffer the same fate, many parents and educational professionals fear that Cambodia’s education system may fail her.

“We face difficulties,” she said as she worked at planting rice seedlings on a recent day. “We illiterate, it’s like we have blind eyes, and we don’t make any progress like the literates.”

Government statistics show that 70 percent of the population is somewhat literate, but development experts say that a poor education environment and other factors are hurting the country’s progress.

Van La said she was determined to send her children to school, so that they might learn to read and write and better their futures, but she could still face an uphill struggle.

Writers Say Illiteracy Makes Uninformed Citizens

“The majority of the illiterate are poor,” Pal Vannariraks, who has written novels, poems and other works, told “Hello VOA” Monday. (Photo: by Heng Reaksmey)

Wednesday, 17 August 2011Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“So many people in Cambodia are illiterate.”

Cambodia’s illiteracy rate remains high, contributing to uninformed citizens and a lack of development, two Cambodian writers said Monday.

“The majority of the illiterate are poor,” Pal Vannariraks, who has written novels, poems and other works, told “Hello VOA” Monday. She called illiteracy “an enemy of human beings,” leading to a lack of wisdom or strategies on how to lead a good life.

Kho Tararith, a writer who is now studying at Harvard University, said illiteracy can also mean a lack of understanding of laws, regulations and services provided by modern society. He urged the Cambodian government to pay closer attention to literacy and reading.

60% of the illiterates in Cambodia are women

Cambodia's literacy rate among youngsters reaches 84.7%

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's literacy rate among people aged 15-24 has reached 84.7 percent after years of efforts by the government, khmer newspaper reported on Thursday.

"If we consider 15 years old upwards, it has 73.6 percent of literate people. However, among this figure, there are still 26.4 percent of illiterate population, " the Kampuchea Thmei quoted Phon Hon Sin, director of informal education system of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, as saying.

And among the illiterate people, 60 percent of them are women. "Each year we helped 55,000 people to eliminate illiteracy," he said.

"The most of illiterate women have abandoned their education since the beginning of primary. Their dropout rate from primary and secondary schools is about 10 percent across the country and at the higher education, the women enrollment rate is so low and it has about 30 percent only," he said, adding that poverty is mainly the reason why they abandon education.

"Education sectors of the government opened 1,000 literacy classes and another 1,000 literacy classes were set up by organizations with supports from partners," he said.