THE Ministry of Education says it is removing the “high-level” option from the Kingdom’s national high school curriculum, putting all students on the same 10-subject courseload.

First implemented in 2008 with Grade 10 students, the high-level curriculum allowed students to focus their 24 class hours per week on five priority subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and Khmer literature. Students in the “basic level” track study these subjects in addition to geography, history, earth science, English and morality.

Uo Eng, director general at the General Department of Education, said yesterday that the decision to jettison the high-level track was because of the difficulty of reflecting the high-level material on the Kingdom’s national Grade 12 exam.

“We would have to prepare differently designed tests, and it would be difficult for students if we implement this new curriculum,” Uo Eng said. Keeping all students in the basic curriculum will allow education authorities to administer a single exam to all students, he added.

The high-level programme was developed beginning in 2005 to help students target subjects that they hoped to focus on at university; incoming Grade 12 students would have been the first to see it reflected on their exit exams...read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or the see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.