Education In Cambodia: My Visit To Extra Classes

We finally had some free time on Saturday afternoon away from our fun-packed busy schedule that Sievlan and her sister, Alann had arranged for us. I decided to go visit two small schools with Sievlan to help her posting posters to spread the news on scholarship opportunities that are being offered by AUPP to high school students around the country. These two small schools are not regular schools that students are required to attend, in fact, they are not school at all but rather places for teachers to hold extra classes for their students. The students need to pay to attend these classes. On average, students need to pay 5 dollars to attend a class for a month but the price is varied depend on the teachers. Each student often take 5 classes that teach math, sciences, and others, and they have to go in order to do good in class. Teachers often withhold information on certain topics, for example, in math, the teacher do not do the exercise or not fully finished at explaining how to do it and would tell the students to come to the extra classes to get the full lesson. Students often have to go because the exercise can be on the test and they will not be able to solve it since they have not learned it yet. The main reason the teachers are doing this, it is because of low wages as teachers do not get paid enough to support themselves and their families. This is another source of income for them to get by on the daily expenses. Unfortunately if a student is unable to afford such extra classes, he or she may never do good in school or even pass the national exam at the end of their 12th grade. This practice contributes to the high rate of drop out of Cambodian students, especially in the rural areas, where most of their parents can barely support their families. Hopefully the new direction that the government is taking in reforming the education system in the country will eventually stop this practice from continuing since I believe that neither the teachers, nor the students are willing participants. This is a necessity due to financial needs of the teachers rather than a greedy interest for money from the students.IMG_2983IMG_2985IMG_2982IMG_2992IMG_2986IMG_2979