Education in Cambodia

On this page

1. Wat schools
2. French protectorate
3. After independence
4. Khmer Rouge years
5. Rebuilding
6. Structure and enrollment
7. See also
8. References

On this page

1. Wat schools
2. French protectorate
3. After independence
4. Khmer Rouge years
5. Rebuilding
6. Structure and enrollment
7. See also
8. References

The entrance of Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh

Education in Cambodia grew from schools run by Buddhist monks into a public system of twelve grades overseen by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

Wat schools

Before French rule, schooling in Cambodia was for boys and was given by Buddhist monks in the Wats. Thomas Clayton, drawing on earlier studies, writes that it usually covered reading and writing Khmer, the teachings of Buddhism, good conduct and some arithmetic. Out Chanthea, of the Royal University of Fine Arts, dates the spread of schooling in the Wats to about the twelfth century.

Under the French, the Wat schools were brought into the public system. About 30 Wat schools in the provinces bordering Thailand had been modernized on the Thai model, and the French took them over from 1908. Made secular in 1911 and called khum, or commune, schools, they numbered 203 in 1931 and 268 in 1939. From 1924 monks were trained as teachers at Kampot, and the number of modernized Wat schools rose from 101 in 1931 to 908 in 1939.

French protectorate

The first French-language school, the School of the Protectorate, was opened in Phnom Penh in 1873 by a French infantry officer, Ferry Rolles. It was renamed the College of the Protectorate in 1893, the Collège Sisowath in 1905 and the Lycée Sisowath in 1933. Its first Cambodian students passed the baccalauréat in 1939. Franco-Cambodian schools opened in most provincial capitals after 1903, growing from 18 in 1907 to 29 in 1916, and from 1916 a decree obliged every boy who lived within two kilometers of one to attend.

Clayton quotes Ben Kiernan's figures for the end of the period. Some 80,000 pupils attended modern primary schools in 1944, but only about 500 a year finished the primary certificate, and there were about 1,000 secondary students. By 1953 there were 2,700 secondary students in eight high schools, and no universities.

After independence

After independence in 1953, new schools were built in rural and remote areas, and universities were founded in the capital and in several provincial cities. Out Chanthea gives primary enrollment as about 130,000 in 1950, 600,000 in 1960 and more than one million in the late 1960s, and writes that education took more than 20 percent of national spending by the late 1960s.

Khmer Rouge years

Under the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979, formal schooling was ended. An estimate cited by Out Chanthea holds that 75 to 80 percent of teachers and students in higher education fled or died in those years.

Rebuilding

The People's Republic of Kampuchea made the reopening of schools its first aim from 1979 to 1981. With help from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Red Cross, about 6,000 educational institutions were rebuilt and thousands of teachers trained. Primary enrollment rose from 900,000 in 1980 to 1.3 million in 1989, and lower secondary enrollment from 4,800 to 240,000.

Structure and enrollment

General education follows a 6+3+3 pattern: six years of primary school, grades 1 to 6, three of lower secondary, grades 7 to 9, and three of upper secondary, grades 10 to 12, ending in a diploma examination. Open Development Cambodia notes that the first nine years are free in public schools. The Education Law of 2007 gives every citizen the right to at least nine years of free education. A 2016 study by the ministry, UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics noted that primary school is not compulsory.

In the 2018 to 2019 school year Cambodia had 7,228 primary schools with about two million pupils and 45,836 teachers, more than half of them women. The net enrollment rate in primary school rose from 87.0 percent in 2001 to 2002 to 94.5 percent in 2014 to 2015, and in lower secondary school from 18.9 to 39.1 percent. The share of children aged 6 to 11 out of school fell from 23 percent in 2004 to 13 percent in 2012, nearly 250,000 children. More than 105 public and private institutions offered higher education.

See also

• Schools and education