PUBLISHED: 27 August 2019

Education (Improve quality of education, both learning and teaching)

I. Teacher Policy Action Plan:
a. Attracting capable individual to choose teaching profession: candidates with high school exam grade of A, B, C are entitled to pass automatically to teacher training (12+4), candidates with Master degree could do the Master+1 program to be high school teacher at NIE, accept candidates from both public and private schools, strengthen national teacher entrance examination (no more provincial).
b. Strengthening teacher training: reform teacher training programs at all levels, more restrictions during practicum, upgrade qualification of Teacher Training College (TTC) trainers to get at least Master Degree
c. Management of teachers: strengthen teacher management, deployment, and transfer mechanisms, formulate Teacher Career Pathway (TCP) to lead professional growth and continued career progression of teachers, delegated selection and management of teachers to lower levels.
d. Teaching profession development: promote the culture of lifelong learning and upgrade teacher qualifications to get at least bachelor degree through BA-Fast Track Program (one month and a half of three trainings), provide scholarship for teachers to pursue Bachelor or Master Degree – 1,000 places per year.
e. Motivating teacher to reduce turnover: improve working condition and livelihood of teachers, provide materials and equipment for teaching and researching, created nationwide “Teacher Cup” to reward the best teachers and raise status of this profession, established technical group within the teacher training institutes. Increase teacher salaries and introduce merit base appointment (Effective on May 1, 2015, the minimum basic salary for teacher was increased to 650,000 Riels)
f. Strengthening governance of education institutions: develop standard for school principal and school management handbook leading to effective school leadership, provide training to school principal, provide leadership training to school management committee (1,000 staffs/year), delegate key management functions and decision making power to school level.

II. Reviewing educational program, curriculum, and school environment
a. Review curricula across all levels, revised textbooks and develop new teacher guides (priority subjects: Mathematics, Science, History, and Khmer literature)
b. Improve school infrastructure: classroom, latrines, and teacher housing
c. Prepare guidelines for minimum standard on hygiene and water and sanitation in primary school
d. Increased stipend for scholarship students from poor families and outstanding students in lower and upper secondary schools

III. Implementation of quality auditing: MoEYS adopted on February 23, 2015, the Regulation on Education Quality Assurance together with M&E tools in order to improve the quality and efficiency of educational services

IV. Improve quality by implementing exams at national, regional, and international levels:
a. High School National Examination reform: In 2014, the Minister of Education in collaboration with the Anti-Corruption Unit implemented measures to ensure that there was not cheating and corruption during the exam. Security and monitoring was strengthened at the examination hall. The ministry has announced mostly the same thing for the 2015 national high school exam.
b. National exam at sixth grade on Khmer literature, Maths, and EGRA and EGMA and various competitions at regional and international levels

V. Higher education reform:
a. Ministry has approved Minimum Standards for Accreditation of Higher education in Cambodia (9 standards and 73 indicators)
b. Ministry also gave priority to the new establishment of private higher education institutions if they could respond to needs for social development, economic development, and labour market
c. Royal University of Phnom Penh reform: establishment of faculty of Education
d. MoEYS has focused on equitable access to higher education by providing scholarships to poor students, female students and students from rural areas. The ministry has constructed 4 dormitories in Phnom Penh to accommodate female students from poor families and from faraway provinces.