Education in Cambodia



Education in Cambodia

Introduction

We live in a world in which we must strive every day to achieve a better life and society. Thus among other factors education plays a vital role in achieving better life for an individual and society as whole. Moreover today for the development of a country, effective, developed and talented human resource is required. Therefore an effective education system is very important in a country to train people skillfully and mentally. Efficient education system harnesses the personality of human beings (FORCEFIDELE, 2010). At its core, education is a cognitive activity focused on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, or to improve human beings for better development of individuals and country as whole. The main purpose of education is to preserve and retransform cultural heritage of a country along with human civilization. The quality of education that exists in a given society depends largely on the pace of economic and political development. For instance, developed countries provide advanced education to its citizens and they have high level education system that helps in developing skilled and best human resources while developing countries are still struggling to develop proper education systems for its people that are considered as the future of the country. Cambodia is one of that poor and underdeveloped country that is facing many issues related to its education system. Thus this paper deals with the problem of education system in Cambodia.

History

Cambodia (Kampuchea) is a country located in Southeast Asia, southwest of the former Indochina, bordering the Gulf of Thailand and bordering with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. It comprises of 20 provinces and 4 municipalities, NUOL is its capital. Cambodia is found to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Traditionally, education in Cambodia was given in the Buddhist temples, and therefore rendered exclusively to men. In 1917, the French colonial government adopted the Law on Education, which introduced a system of primary and secondary education, modeled on the one that was taken at that time in France. However, the new system was essentially elitist, covering only a small number of local people and serving primarily as a learning tool for the European-educated workers the colonists throughout French Indochina (FORCEFIDELE, 2010). After regaining independence, Cambodia introduced a general system of education. It was followed by the development of the network of vocational-technical schools, such as the Medical School (1953), The Royal School of Administration (1956), the Normal School (1959), National School of Commerce (1958), and the National Institute of Legal, Political and Economic Sciences (1961). However, apart from the Buddhist University founded in 1954 to train monks in Cambodia until the mid-60's, when was founded Royal Khmer University, there was no state institution, where a citizen of Cambodia can get a higher education. In 1965, 6 higher educational institutions were created: the Royal Technical University, the Royal University of Fine Arts, the Royal University of Kampong Cham, Takeo Queen's University, Queen's University of Agronomic Sciences and National University. Then, in 1968, it was followed ...