Cambodia Education Depression

MY VIEW ON CAMBODIA EDUCATION

   I have had my eyes over the allegation of Cambodia education depression. For me, education area is the fundamental field in which the government should seriously address their concern on its progress. As far as I can see, there have been some critics over the standard of Cambodian education, specially the public school. Thus, I think it is about time to clean and repair the field of education. In the end, I would like to suggest that everyone should get involve to change the current trend of Cambodia education system. Thank you. Here is the article:

   When the Royal Government of Cambodia announced the newly determined and conceptual strategies aiming Cambodia education salvation and redemption, the standard and progress of this Cambodia’s most essential area is facing many challenging problems and is leading to various outrageous consequences. Education is the process of training and developing one’s knowledge, but present Cambodia people’s activities toward this major field is distinguishing this term. The issues are still at large and alerting the people communities which cause prompt proposal for immediate effective solutions and firm actions from the authorities as well as the communities themselves. Following these problems, there is high inspection and intensive investigation conducted by the Government in order to secure the future human resources base by eradicating all the main factors lead to Cambodia education depression. So what are the factors? To answer this question, this essay will demonstrates the negative impact and miserable effect on Cambodia education made by the students, the teachers and the school itself.

   To begin, let evaluate the standard of Cambodian students by studying the latest statistic, 77.6% of students passed the BacII in the year of 2006, but, some spectators still not believe in this standard. For me, it is a proven result, but from my experience, students are not working hard nowadays because of the easiness of the examination. What kind of easiness? Not the difficulty of the test (the questions), in contrast, the loose of restriction during the examination period. Teachers often receive bribery from students (from which they (students) collect approximately 5,000 riels or more each) in a deal for being not too restrict but helpful during the period of testing. From my real-life experience, in my day of examination, I brought 30,000 riels each day for further collection, and I would be assured that the teachers which were assigned to man the class would not check and confiscate extra hand-outs or documents (and I confess that I also involve in bribery as well). And, this is one tradition in the examination day of BacII, this activity is practiced since 2000 or maybe earlier. Ask every students who is graduated during that given time, they will give same answer that they used to bribe or join the collection of illegal money inside testing period. Moreover, those packs of money are not only for insurance that teachers would not intercept the students but also to ensure the assistance from them (teachers) providing that students give somewhat great amount of cash.

One more important aspect of Cambodian education is the consideration over the issues of student‘s inappropriate manner and improper behavior. They forgot to ask themselves three questions which are: who are they? Where are they from? And why are they here in school wearing student uniform?
1.   Who are they? : They are the new Khmer generation who are expected to bring back Khmer worldwide reputation and build a better Cambodia society and Khmer prosperity. They are the core of human resources, the remedy to cure Khmer mind diseases and the key to unseal the curse that was set on Khmer people as well as our nations.
2.   Where are they from? : They come from a nation which was once a great powerful empire in Asia, and used to immerse in every aspect of conflicts in the last 2 decades of war. They are from a country which has an ancient civilization and culture and other marvelous heritage which is required intensive care from them.
3.   Why are they here in school wearing student uniform? Because this is their obligation, mission and responsibility for further development of Cambodia. They are the seeker of fundamental knowledge and understanding necessary for the building of prestigious future of Khmer.

However, their ignorance and misunderstanding on these questions implies their less-interest and negative vision on Khmer education system. To be clear, their fascination is on gang fight, drug and sexual approach (sex before marriage) which are considered as unnecessary massive interruption and deadly and dangerous activities (AIDS/HIV).

Despite the increasing amount of students each year, the actual amount of students attended school is only 80%. Among the 80%, the students with good behavior, determined and discipline is less than expected while there is report about the tremendous number of students who skip-school and being criminals, Plus, students who attend school do not pay much attention to class. As we can see, along a road near the royal palace and river banks, there are many groups of students riding motorbikes accompany by unknown people or gangsters as if they are free from studying. Undeniably, those students are skipping school or seize chance when their teacher is absent and get out of school without thinking of other prior destination such as going to library or gathering friends for group study which is more essential for their education. School, which is a place for education becomes a place for gang gathering and love-seeking place. Gang fight usually happens and takes place nearby school and some other famous gathering place for youngsters. If you are a fan of newspaper, you will find many articles about gang fight both inside and outside Phnom Penh city. The morale and virtue of Cambodian young people are dramatically dropped within these 5 late years. Moreover, students even commit crime such as rape (gang rape), robbery, even murder. Lately, inside Bak Tuk high school, there is a shock and big arrest of 7 students who allegedly charged with the crime of robbery. And there are many more other cases about crimes committed by students. In my opinion, the thing that leads students to this situation is drug. Wherever drug is, there will be misery and despair. People, who are haunted by drug, live like a menace and fearful spirit. They harm people around them even their close friend or relatives just for surviving. Drug is a white death. Most people will show complete agreement on this statement, but it is said that not just drug but also the society. They said the HK movies (mostly the 1970s to 1990s movies) are also the main magnitude of these dropped of Cambodian youngster morale. In HK movies, there are many scenes of raping, robbery, killing, fighting and other aspect of violence. Young people, whose knowledge is still incomprehensive, will not be able to decide what is the virtue or the point that must be avoided. They tempt to follow and try to act-it-out in the real world. This is a good argument because people always make an exclamation like “OH! They fought like in the HK movies” or “Those youngsters drove like in the HK movies”. All in all, both drug and HK movies altogether influence the mind of those Khmer young people, and because of that, the government tries their best to stop it.

What about love in young age in Cambodia, 50% of the junior high school (grade 7 to 9) has love and they are still considered as underage or below 18. Most of them are younger than young, girls are from 13 to 15 and boy from 14 to 17 years old know how to love and even make love. Even if they are not disallowed to have love, they should wait until a right time to come. Most people would say that will be some kind of a good trend because it will teaches those students more about life but some inspectors will disagree with no hesitation. Their theory is, they are still under 18 and their mission is to finish high school, not seek for life experience outside home. Base on Cambodian culture, most children and adult people still under immense control and influence from their parent, thus, some of their (children) decisions and activities still affected by the great suppressive influence of the elder people. But the real problem is, they have excessive addiction to love. To be clear, those youngsters are killing themselves because they do not understand the actual aspect of Cambodian society. They trust their heart more than their brain, and when people let their heart control them, they are breaking-loss. Love and drug is a sign of AIDS/HIV. So, for my own opinion, parent should undertake more close and intensive detections over their children so that they can be assured that their children are staying away from trouble.

Moreover, student’s external and internal interception to the progress of the class sparked them as low-educated people. They sometimes attempt to stop or pause the class activities by arguing with the teacher or class-caretaker and even start a fight with people they should respect (teacher or class-caretaker), leaving their virtue behind. There are dramatic decline on their degree of education according to one group of students from Sisowath high school. School has not yet assigned or hired security measures to defense these immense interruptions by gangsters.

Anyway, this problem is not as big as this one, the money mind. Corruption play negative role in Cambodia education, bribing by students is increasingly well-known and becoming prevalent. Students give teacher money and they will be able to pass the exam although they have high absence records. This practice severely hurt the studious students. I experienced this myself when I was studying at grade 8. I remembered that I kept studying and practicing lessons, but I never got the desire point. I thought I was not doing enough, but after a year, I knew that there was another reason. Most of the students who got better point than me are those who had attended the “special course”. Special Course is an extra of extra course for teacher of the three main subjects (Literature, Mathematic and physic). But some students refer this “Special Course” to a new style of bribing and conspiracy. They say that between extra course and special course, they see nothing different in particular. The point of studying “Special course” is to satisfy the teacher due to its high fee. Teachers make extra profit from students and return them with some unfair treatment to another side of students. Those who attend “Special Course” are able to get more point than students who are not. All in all, regardless to the intensity, corruption is one big challenge to Cambodian education. If there is still corruption, Cambodian institutions still can not find their true color of utilizing education service.

To continue, an illustration to teacher’s transaction is a must. Without the indirect combination from teachers’ treatments and commitments, there will be no such critical problems. Teacher takes part of a main reason of the depreciation of Cambodian education as well. Presently, the major problem is that teachers lack serious devotion in their teaching career, some are unskilled and non-profession, some have outstanding tendency and corruption. To demonstrate, the standard of teachers in public school is questionable because of their commitments and style. Teacher to student is a second parent. Why? Besides their real parent, teachers are the closest people to young people. Most of their childhood and adulthood, they spend much of their times with teachers at school. The relationship between students and teachers can be sometimes more than parent and children. In Cambodia, however, teachers are not approaching students in term of “second parent” but “second dictators”. An illustration to teacher’s transaction is a must. Without the indirect combination from teachers’ treatments and commitments, there will be no such critical problems. Teacher takes part of a main reason of the depreciation of Cambodian education as well. There are questions about their proficiency as well as their purpose for being a teacher. This essay will display some aspects of teachers in Cambodia.