Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Phanmey, 17, a grade 11 student. “If students don't go to the extra classes they only get
graded on their paper; they get nothing extra.” In the worst cases—and things are gener-
ally worse in rural areas—small payments can buy the manipulation of marks and grades,
cash-for-answers schemes, and other cushy treatment from teachers.
Like many of his classmates, Kimkuong Chandan, an 18-year-old in his final year at
Russei Keo High School in the city's north, has paid for good grades. He studies hard,
hoping to pursue a career as a civil engineer, but it's frustrating to see lazier students
outscore him by slipping payments to their teachers. For $15 or $20, paid discreetly a few
days before the exam, he can at least keep up with his classmates. But he said that this
schoolyard graft has a leveling effect, discouraging hard work and promoting low expect-
ations among the brightest students. “I also pay money, but at the end I get the same score
as someone who never comes to study and just pays,” said Chandan, sitting under a tree
in the school yard, near a rusty basketball ring.
Not all teachers accept “tips” and payments, but their low salaries—starting at just $50
per month for primary school teachers and $120 at secondary level—put many teachers in
the position of having to choose between their ethical commitment to their students and
the imperatives of survival. “Many bad things happen in the education system, and I've
also joined in. I'm not happy about it, but I have to live,” said one teacher at Russei Keo
High School, who spoke on condition of anonymity, concerned he would be disciplined
for admitting to taking payments. Such schoolyard bribery was rare two decades ago.
During the 1980s teacher salaries were minuscule, but they received food allowances,
and, in rural areas, land and housing. Payoffs only became commonplace with the onset
of the free market. “In 1993 the corruption started and has gotten bigger and bigger,” the
teacher told me. “The Education Ministry knows about this, but they just close their eyes
… They have no ideas of how to stop it.”
As with health care, Cambodians continue to be let down by their education system. In
2010 public spending on schooling was among the lowest in ASEAN: at 2.6 percent of
GDP, only Burma spent less. Since 2000 education spending has risen steadily in absolute
terms, but as the number of students has grown, education funding has dropped from 14.6
of “Hun Sen schools” has been undertaken for political, rather than pedagogical, reasons.
After they are unveiled by the prime minister, the paint peels and classrooms molder. In
its annual report for 2012-13, the Ministry of Education stated that a fifth of all Cam-
bodian public schools lacked “good walls.” Almost half had no access to running water
and nearly a third didn't have a toilet. Faced with overburdened teachers and collapsing
classrooms, almost 60 percent of Cambodian students fail to graduate beyond the ninth
people have done in Cambodia for generations. In 2012 the International Labour Organ-
