Kingdom of Cambodia: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport

Primary education is the first level of education in the country’s education system. Schools were reopened in early 1979 after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime. Through the strong joint efforts of the community, local authorities and the MoEYS, an education system was re-established.

In the 1997-98 school year, the country has a total of 5,026 primary schools, 350 lower-secondary schools and 125 upper-secondary schools. Of the total number of primary schools, about 50% do not have the complete range of grades (Grades I through VI) for the primary cycle. Children who live far away from a school with the complete range of grades find very hard to continue learning and some of them inevitably become dropouts.

Due to budget constraints there is little hope of ensuring equal opportunity for every child to receive a 9-year basic education in the very near future. Problems are still found in education network, such as poor services of education delivery and a large gap in education quality between urban schools and rural or remote schools.

The school-age population has increased in the 1997-98 school year and the net enrolment rate in primary education for the whole country is 78.3%[1] . In other words, about 21.7% (or about 0.4 million) of the population aged 6-11 remain outside the school, some received only 1-2-3-4 or 5 years schools. a very good number of children who already had change to complete lower grade, become drop-outs due to many causes, including the incomplete range of grades for the primary cycle. As the encouragement of primary schools have complete range of grades of the primary cycle is one MoEYS priorities, the multi-grade teaching methodology should be promoted in remote areas where the school-age choldren are sparse. The increasing number of dropouts in lower grades is the cause of the higher rate of illiteracy. In order to be safe from falling into lapse again, a child must at least complete grade 4 or grades 5. The situation is worse in remote provinces as the net enrolment rate is even lower than 50%.

Because of poverty, shortage of labor in the family and the low level of education, certain segments of the population perceive that education is not imperative for themselves nor their families.

According to recent survey on "Girl's Education" jointly conducted by Department of Planning, MoEYS, and CARE International in July 1998, those who achieved primary education level do not earn much more than those without education. However, those who complete lower secondary school always receive higher income than those who complete primary schools, according to the same survey.

Kingdom of Cambodia

Schools, Classes, Students and Staff

Particulars	Number of	Disadv.	Number of	Classes	Enrollment		Repeaters		Teaching Staff		Non-Teaching Staff
	Schools	Schools	Classes	in Pagoda	Total	Girl	Total	Girl	Total	Female	Total	Female
Whole Kingdom	6,449	574	57,547	1,144	2,447,235	1,083,438	536,180	230,179	62,647	22,562	10,879	2,899
By Area of Location: - Urban Area	10,94	39	16,255	211	718,415	316,044	122,967	51,158	21,337	10,246	4,954	1,935
- Rural Area	4,605	417	37,602	831	1,576,190	699,177	371,1556	160,221	38,727	11,965	5,720	956
- Remote Area	750	118	3,690	102	152,630	68,217	41,657	18,800	2,583	351	205	8
By Type of School & Edn. Level:
- Pre-School	806	32	14,14	61	45,068	22,186	0	0	1,793	1,777	190	173
- Primary School	51,56	532	48,370	958	2,094,000	956,084	514,363	224,892	43,530	16,148	5,870	1,284
- College	355	10	3,506	125	127,247	42,186	10,102	2,412	8,114	2,015	2,221	572
- Lycee	132	0	4,257	0	180,920	62,982	11,715	2,875	9,210	2,622	2,598	870
- Lower Secondary Level	480	10	5,903	125	226,057	77,714	19,327	4,729	13,769	3,820	3,813	1,109
- Upper Secondary Level	132	0	1,860	0	82,110	27,454	2,490	558	3,555	817	1,006	333

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